US President Donald Trump points as he takes questions during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus at the White House on April 10, 2020. (AFP photo)

Support for President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis has plunged over the past month, with a majority of Americans now disapproving of his handling of the pandemic, according to several new polls.

Some 55 percent of respondents disapprove of his management of the public health crisis, while just 44 percent approve, an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday shows.

The survey found that support for Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has fallen sharply from the levels he achieved in mid-March, when 55 percent of Americans approved of his response and 43 percent disapproved.

Almost all Americans, 86 percent, report being concerned about being infected by the coronavirus, similar to the 89 percent observed last week, the ABC News/Ipsos poll found.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found approval of Trump’s handling of coronavirus had dipped to 42 percent, down from 48 percent the week before.

Trump’s overall approval rating stands at 46 percent approve and 49 percent disapprove, falling from 48 percent approval in late-March, according to a CNN poll released Thursday.

Concerns over the coronavirus and the plummeting US economy has lowered Trump’s overall approval ratings and could damage his re-election chances in November’s US presidential election.

Some of Trump’s Republican allies and advisers are said to be concerned over his daily press briefings on the pandemic, which Trump has used to propagate lies and disinformation about his response to the pandemic.

White House allies and Republican lawmakers increasingly believe the briefings are hurting the president more than helping him, The New York Times reported.

Trump has faced criticism for playing down the outbreak in its initial stages. He said early on that the virus was under control and repeatedly compared it to the seasonal flu.

The United States on Friday became the first country to record more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in one day, with 2,108 fatalities in the past 24 hours, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

The US has now recorded over 18,680 deaths and is closing in on the toll of 18,850 dead in Italy, which has seen the most fatalities so far in the global pandemic.

America is also approaching half a million confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 501,000 as of Saturday morning an increase of 35,098 in the past 24 hours.

Globally, there have been nearly 1.7 million confirmed cases, with the death toll topping 100,000 on Friday.

New York state, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, along with the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut, were recording some of the worst outbreaks in the country, even as public health authorities expressed optimism that the pace of infections appeared to be slowing.

As of Saturday, the New York City metropolitan area had 5,820 coronavirus deaths, accounting for more than half the nation’s fatalities.

SOURCE: PRESS TV