Less Than 10 Percent of Americans Call COVID a 'Crisis' as Mandates Ease

Most Americans now call the COVID-19 pandemic either a "manageable" problem or "not a problem at all," according to a poll released Tuesday. Meanwhile, only 9 percent referred to the pandemic as a "serious crisis."

The Axios/Ipsos poll for the outlets' joint Coronavirus Index found more Americans said they are returning to activities that they enjoyed before the pandemic hit. The survey results suggested a return to normalcy for many Americans, though the respondents were not directly asked if their attitudes were affected by "pandemic fatigue" or because they felt safer due to vaccines and declining rates of infections.

The publication of the poll comes as health data showed COVID cases are increasing in some areas of the country. On Monday, the city of Philadelphia announced it will reinstate an indoor mask mandate after a 50 percent increase in reported COVID-19 cases over the course of 10 days. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that it is watching cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible Omicron strain that could potentially cause more of a case uptick.

According to the poll, 73 percent of respondents said they consider the state of coronavirus in the country to be "a problem but manageable." Seventeen percent said they don't consider the virus to be a problem.

The poll also found that 44 percent of Americans said they still wear a mask outside their homes "at least sometimes," while 34 percent said they had practiced social distancing in the past week.

Meanwhile, 65 percent of the survey respondents said they had gone out to eat in the past week, and 66 percent said they had visited friends or family.

Just 15 percent reported personally experiencing a mask requirement from their state or local government in public places, which marked a decline of 12 percentage points from the prior month. Another decrease was found in the number of people who said their employer required masks at their place of work: 22 percent said they had a mask mandate at work, down 17 percentage points from March.

Support for businesses requiring proof of vaccination also declined. In early February, a similar Axios/Ipsos poll found that 51 percent of people said they supported businesses mandating proof of vaccination from customers before they were allowed to enter stores or restaurants. Now, only 36 percent said they support businesses requiring that proof.

Americans are also less likely to say they support their state or local governments requiring masks in all public places. Forty-four percent said they back the requirement in the new survey, down from 50 percent last month.