Majority of Americans Believe Trump Should Enact Nationwide Stay-at-Home Order, Poll Says

Most Americans believe President Donald Trump needs to issue a national stay-at-home order in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to polling data released Wednesday by The Economist and data analytics firm YouGov.

State governments across the U.S. have issued blanket orders requiring social distancing and closing many businesses, but Trump has expressed a desire to reopen some of the country's businesses on or before May 1.

A majority of those surveyed, 61 percent, said Trump should issue a stay-at-home order for the entire country. Those against the idea numbered 22 percent while 18 percent said they weren't sure.

Democrats were in the majority supporting the national stay-at-home order with 78 percent of those polled identifying with that party. Republicans were less sure, with 46 percent supporting such an order, while 56 percent of those surveyed in favor of the order claimed to be independent voters.

Of those polled, 85 percent indicated they were already living under stay-at-home orders enacted by their state governments. States in the southern U.S. has the fewest number of people under stay-at-home orders with 82 percent. However, 88 percent of individuals who live in the western region of the U.S. reported being under stay-at-home orders.

Only seven states in the U.S. have not enacted stay-at-home orders, including Arkansas. Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas told CNN on Sunday, "We want to take the long term approach to [coronavirus] and you're not going to win simply by a lockdown."

Infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said he believes every state in the U.S. should be under stay-at-home mandates.

"You know, the tension between federally mandated versus states' rights to do what they want is something I don't want to get into," Fauci told CNN in April. "But if you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that."

Newsweek reached out to the National Institute of Health and the CDC for comment.

While Trump has yet to formally announce his plans for reopening the country, he said Wednesday that the U.S. may have already gone past the projected height of new coronavirus cases.

"The battle continues," Trump said Wednesday, "but the data suggest that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases. These encouraging developments have put us in a strong position to finalize guidelines on for states on reopening the country, which we'll be announcing. We are going to be talking about that tomorrow."

Trump has suggested that the country could open in stages, saying that some states are in "very very good shape."

"We have one country but lots of different pieces," Trump said Tuesday. "We have beautiful states with beautiful governors. They know it is time to open."

"Some of them are ready to go and that's a good thing," Trump added. "So we will open it up in beautiful pieces as it comes along."