Few Americans support easing restrictions

Despite pockets of attention-grabbing protests, a new survey finds Americans remain overwhelmingly in favour of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A majority say it won’t be safe to lift such restrictions anytime soon, even as a handful of governors announce plans to ease within days the public health efforts that have upended daily life and roiled the global economy.

The survey from the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research finds that the country largely believes restrictions on social interaction to curb the spread of the virus are appropriate.

Only 12 per cent of Americans say the measures where they live go too far. About twice as many people, 26 per cent, believe the limits don’t go far enough. The majority of Americans — 61 per cent — feel the steps taken by government officials to prevent infections of Covid-19 in their area are about right.

About eight in 10 Americans say they support measures that include requiring Americans to stay in their homes and limiting gatherings to 10 people or fewer.

Just 36 per cent of Republicans now say they strongly favour requiring Americans to stay home during the outbreak, compared with 51 per cent who said so in late March. While majorities of Democrats and Republicans think current restrictions where they live are about right, Republicans are roughly four times as likely to think restrictions go too far — 22 per cent to 5 per cent.