A new Gallup Poll published on Wednesday found that 41% of respondents said that the COVID-19 situation is getting better, 39% in the poll said that the nation’s COVID-19 situation is getting worse, and 29% of those surveyed said it is staying the same.
The survey, conducted July 26-Aug. 2, captures public opinion at a time when new COVID-19 infections have risen to roughly 100,000 per day, on average, as the BA.2 variant has spread. By contrast, before Gallup's last update on Americans' reaction to the pandemic in April, the country was experiencing about 30,000 new cases per day.
New York State reported 48,982 new COVID-19 cases in the week ending Sunday, up from 44,235 new cases the prior week.
New York ranked 17th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA Today Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.
Nationally, COVID-19 cases decreased about 14% from the week before, with 781,487 cases reported. Across the country, 13 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.
More Democrats than Republicans believe the COVID-19 situation in the country is getting worse, according to the new Gallup Poll.
In polling last April and May, 56% of Democrats said they thought the situation was improving, compared to just 29% in the new poll. While just 23% thought the situation was getting worse in the spring poll, now 44% of Democrats think it is getting worse.
Among Republicans, 58% think COVID-19 situation has gotten better, while 41% of independent respondents believe the same sentiment, the poll said.
In the poll, 24% of respondents said that their lives are back to the way they were before the pandemic, while 55% of those surveyed said their lives are somewhat back to normal, and 21% of respondents said their lives are not yet back to normal.
The percentage of Americans who say they have worn a face mask outside their home in the past seven days has dipped to 47%, a new low in the trend. In April, 50% reported wearing masks, and in February 68% did. In the latter half of 2020, more than 9 in 10 U.S. adults routinely said they were wearing face masks.
Americans are also unlikely to say they are avoiding going to public places (22%), avoiding small gatherings (16%), avoiding large crowds (32%), and avoiding public transportation (25%), including airplanes
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 67% of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Americans' concern about personally contracting the coronavirus is unchanged, with 35% very or somewhat worried, similar to what Gallup has measured since last fall.
A majority of Americans have already had COVID-19, according to the CDC. These include President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, New York Mayor Eric Adams, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIH, former President Donald Trump, and many other high-profile people.
The real number of people who have had the disease may be even higher as many people test COVID-19 positive at home.
According to Gallup: "Americans appear to increasingly accept the coronavirus as a persistent part of life, believing the pandemic is not over and that cases will rise during the fall and winter months. The majority believe their life will never be the same as it was before the pandemic began."
Results for this Gallup poll are based on self-administered web surveys conducted July 26-Aug. 2, 2022, with a random sample of 3,682 adults, aged 18 and older, who are members of the Gallup panel. Gallup uses probability-based, random sampling methods to recruit its panel members.
For results based on the sample of U.S. adults, the margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
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