In July, as COVID-19 cases were rising and people increasingly saw the situation as getting worse, they were not yet adjusting their behavior to reflect the changing conditions. That has changed now, albeit modestly and not to the same level seen earlier in the pandemic.

The August survey finds that 24% of U.S. adults are “completely” or “mostly” isolating themselves from people outside their household, the first meaningful upward movement in this trend since November. Fewer, however, are practicing strict social distancing now than were in April, when many Americans who planned to be vaccinated had not yet gotten their shots. At the beginning of the pandemic, three-quarters of Americans were doing so.