Americans are less likely now than at any point since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to say they are avoiding events with large crowds (70%), public places such as stores and restaurants (53%) and small gatherings (45%). Though each of these behaviors has changed only slightly from late August, they represent significant declines from mid-to-late July and new low points for each of their respective trends since Gallup’s initial March 13-15 reading. Still, the majority are avoiding public places and, in particular, large crowds…
Asked how often they have practiced social distancing in the past 24 hours, 40% of Americans currently say they have “always” and 32% say they have “very often” done so. The combined 72% is virtually unchanged from the 73% who gave one of these responses in late August, but like the indicators reported above, the trend has tapered somewhat since mid-July.
