2 in 3 Americans still worried about coronavirus exposure: Gallup

About two-thirds of Americans are still worried about being exposed to the coronavirus as multiple states see a new spike in cases, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Gallup found that 29 percent of respondents are “very worried” about exposure to the coronavirus, and 66 percent are either “somewhat” or “very” worried.

The proportion who are concerned about the coronavirus has risen since Gallup began asking the question in February. That month, 36 percent of Americans said they were either somewhat or very worried about exposure, a figure that more than doubled in March and has plateaued between 63 and 67 percent since then.

Thirty-seven percent of black respondents and 50 percent of Hispanics said they were “very” worried, compared to only 25 percent of white respondents. A number of studies have indicated that COVID-19 is affecting people of color at disproportionate rates across the country. 

There are also partisan divides over how concerned Americans are, with 85 percent of Democrats saying they are at least somewhat worried that they or their family will come into contact with the virus, compared with 47 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of Independents. 

There have been more than 2.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases across the U.S., and nearly 117,000 people have died.

The poll comes as several states across the country are seeing new spikes in coronavirus cases, throwing reopening plans into question.

California, Texas, Arizona and Florida are among the states reporting the highest daily increases in case counts. In Texas, health authorities on Tuesday registered the state’s highest number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The Trump administration has sought to blame the rise in cases on the increasing number of tests, but experts say there has also been a rise in the percent of tests that are coming back positive.

The Gallup poll surveyed 1,034 adults from May 28 to June 4 and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.