8 in 10 would wait to resume activities after government lifts coronavirus restrictions: poll

Slightly more than 8 in 10 Americans in a new poll said they would wait to resume normal activities even after the government lifts restrictions put in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. 

Seventy-one percent of respondents said they would wait to see what happens with the novel coronavirus before resuming activities, according to the Gallup poll released Tuesday. 

An additional 10 percent said they would continue to limit contact with other people and limit their daily activities indefinitely. 

The poll found that only 20 percent of Americans said they would return to their normal activities immediately once restrictions are lifted. 

The views are split by party affiliation, with Republicans more likely to say they would resume their normal activities. The poll found 31 percent of Republicans said they would immediately resume their normal activities, while just 11 percent of Democrats and 19 percent of independents agreed. 

People who lived in small towns and rural areas were also more likely to say they would resume their normal activities immediately, at 23 percent, compared to just 15 percent of people in cities and 18 percent of people in suburbs. 

There is no difference in these views based on respondents’ household income or whether a person is employed, Gallup noted. 

Schools, restaurants and other nonessential businesses are shut across the country, and nearly every state has put in place stay-at-home orders. 

Public health officials have warned that the reopening of the economy will be a gradual process, and will differ by region. 

Anthony Fauci, a medical doctor and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday that a rollback of some of the restrictions could possibly begin in certain areas of the U.S. next month. 

Across the U.S. there are 582,594 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 23,649 deaths from the disease, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

The Gallup poll was conducted via self-administered web surveys between April 3 and 5 with a random sample of 3,881 Americans who are members of the Gallup Panel. Gallup weighted the sample to correct for nonresponse. There is a 3 percentage-point margin of error.