UK public believe the government is doing what it can to handle coronavirus crisis

Coronavirus daily tracker: March 31st 2020

Although worry remains high at 55%, public perceptions that the government isn’t doing enough to support the NHS, small businesses, employees and supermarkets have dropped as much as 10 points in the last week.

We’re seeing more and more people declaring that they’re self-isolating (51% compared to 36% this time last week).

The Savanta COVID-19 daily tracker continues to point to the public listening to the government with 83% following government advice. As a result, public perceptions of how the government is handling the outbreak continue to improve.

Those that are saying the government is not doing enough to support the NHS (32% down from 36% two days ago), small businesses (30% down from 40% this time last week), employees (25% down from 33% last week) and supermarkets (23% down from 33% last week) have all seen significant reductions, so clearly the public perception that the government is doing a good job is resonating strongly among the public.

Michael Gove’s recent press conference cameos have seen his approval ratings rise, from 10% net approval last week to 22% net approval today.

Self-isolation, supermarkets and working from home

We’re now seeing more and more people declaring that they’re self-isolating (51% compared to 36% this time last week).

Just over a third (37%) of people left the house on Sunday, the lowest figure yet and down 15 points from the previous week. Looking back at last week’s data, we saw drops in this figure over the weekend before it spiked again when people returned to work; it remains to be seen if the spike will be as pronounced this week.

We now have around half of people telling us consistently that they are working from home when they wouldn’t ordinarily. This figure hasn’t dipped below 40% since last Saturday (21^st).

Just 17% of people that left their house visited a supermarket on Sunday, compared to 29% the previous week.

In slightly more positive news, around one in six (16%) people who went to a supermarket did not see any empty shelves. This figure is becoming gradually larger.

We will be updating our coronavirus tracker daily and weekly as this unprecedented pandemic unfolds. The full data set can be downloaded here. Please get in touch for more information.