Approval of US govt's response towards Covid pandemic hits new low: Poll

Americans' approval of the White House's response towards the Covid-19 pandemic has hit a new low, according to a new poll.

The CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday, which surveyed 2,094 adult respondents in the country between January 12-14, found that just more than a third of the respondents believe that the anti-pandemic efforts were "going well", reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the latest poll, only 49 per cent of the respondents approve of the administration's management of the pandemic, down from 66 per cent in the previous survey conducted in July 2021.

While 78 per cent of those approve identify as liberal, 83 per cent who disapprove identify as conservative.

"The federal government faced a significant setback in its efforts to curb the spread of the virus when the Supreme Court rejected a vaccine-or-testing mandate for private employers that would have affected more than 80 million workers," The New York Times said in its report on Monday.

"The court allowed a more limited mandate that requires health care workers at facilities that receive federal money to be vaccinated," the report added.

The poll comes as the recent Covid-19 surge in the US is leading to record high cases, hospitalisations, and critical shortages of healthcare staffs, according to new CDC data published on Monday.

The country is now averaging nearly 800,000 new cases each day and nearly 1,800 deaths each day, up significantly week by week, the CDC revealed.

As of Tuesday morning, the US still continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 66,375,579 and 851,451.

--IANS

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