Half of Americans say they or someone in their household has been financially impacted by the pandemic: poll

Half of Americans in a new poll say they or someone in their household has been financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, which has shuttered thousands of businesses across the country and forced millions into unemployment.

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Wednesday shows that 50 percent of respondents, excluding those not employed or retired, say they or someone in their household has been let go or has had their hours reduced at work because of the pandemic.

That’s a spike from last month, when 18 percent of adults in a poll from the outlets said they or someone in their household had been impacted by the outbreak.

The latest poll comes as more than 26 million people filed for unemployment in the past several weeks, as businesses were shuttered across the country to comply with social distancing and stay-at-home orders. It is unclear how significantly that number will improve as some states begin to ease restrictions in the coming days and weeks.

Americans by a 64 percent to 32 percent margin say the coronavirus, which has infected more than 1 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 58,000, is being better handled by state governors rather than President Trump, according to the NPR/PBS/Marist poll.

Fifty-five percent of Americans also disapproved of Trump’s handling of the virus, up 6 points from last month. Meanwhile, the percentage of those who approved of his handling of the virus remained unchanged at 44 percent.

The White House has come under an avalanche of criticism from Democrats in Washington and bipartisan governors across the country who say the federal government has taken insufficient action to provide personal protection equipment and testing kits to adequately address to coronavirus’s spread and create circumstances to safely reopen the country.

The new poll of 1,008 adults, conducted April 21-26, has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.