Jason Lange

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – While most Americans favor a flexible approach in dealing with the lingering COVID-19 epidemic, where cities impose mask mandates as cases rise, a growing majority of Americans are keen to move on, a Reuters/Ipsos survey on Friday revealed.

These poll results show how difficult it is for U.S. politicians, especially President Joe Biden’s Democrats to balance a national health crisis.

According to the poll, 64 percent of adults in America – 83% of Democrats and 46% Republicans – believe that cities and states need to impose mask laws for public indoor spaces when there’s a resurgence COVID-19.

However, 44% respondents agreed that Americans must return to normal, which is up from 36% who said so in an early February poll.

Tension between these two sentiments became evident this week in Philadelphia. This was after Philadelphia had become the first U.S. capital to reinstate a mask mandate in setting including restaurants, schools, and businesses.

Philadelphia city officials, who like many other big American cities, are run by Democrats. They said that Philadelphia residents should wear masks indoors, and not be forced to.

It is also the biggest city in Pennsylvania. This will make it a crucial battleground for the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when Democrats will try to maintain slim majority in Congress.

Two years after a crisis in public health that claimed nearly 1,000,000 lives, the majority of U.S. States and Localities have relaxed their mask- and vaccine requirements.

The poll results showed that a bipartisan majority (including 53% of Democrats, and 78% from Republicans) felt the outbreak of coronavirus has reached a point in which vaccinations should not be administered to anyone but the individual.

However, the poll found that just half of the poll respondents said they are more inclined to vote for candidates who support rules and mask requirements to stop the pandemic.

Sixty five percent supported masking requirements for airplanes, trains, public transport and other modes of transportation, even though Monday’s federal court revoked a federal federal mandate for public transport.

The Biden administration will appeal the court’s decision. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that they still required the measure.

Respondents said that only 44% believed Biden had fulfilled his 2020 campaign promise to fight the pandemic. Only 35% stated that he has kept his promise to start the recovery of the economy after the crisis.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey was carried out online in English throughout the United States and collected responses from 1,005 adults. The credibility interval is a measurement of precision and accuracy of approximately 4 percentage points.