Americans’ outlook for the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. has improved, as the summer surge brought on by the delta variant has waned in most parts of the country. The percentage of Americans who now say the U.S. COVID-19 situation is improving has more than doubled between September and October, to 51%.

Over the same period, worry about contracting the virus has edged down four percentage points, to 36%, and concern about the availability of hospital supplies, treatment and services has tumbled 10 points, to 33%. Although the public is more optimistic about the current state of the pandemic, a majority thinks the disruption to life will continue throughout 2022 or longer than that…

The latest reading marks the first time since June that a majority of U.S. adults think the pandemic is improving; however, it is well below the 60% to 89% range of February through June, before the highly contagious delta variant caused a rise in U.S. COVID-19 cases. Gallup has established the fact that views of the pandemic are directly related to infection rates.