Two-thirds of Americans say U.S. on wrong track: poll

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two-thirds of Americans say that the United States is on the wrong track, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

A new Politico-Morning Consult poll found only 34 percent of the respondents believe the country is going in the right direction.

Forty-three percent of Americans say they "strongly approve" or "somewhat approve" of the job Joe Biden is doing as the U.S. president, while roughly 53 percent note they "somewhat disapprove" or "strongly disapprove" of it, according to the poll.

It also showed only 39 percent of Americans say they approve of Biden's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, while 41 percent give it a poor rating, with 16 percent calling it "just fair."

A growing number of states in the country, which has reported the world's highest coronavirus infections and deaths, have eased COVID-19 restrictions amid a decline in daily new cases after a surge driven by the Omicron variant.

"Omicron cases are declining, and we are all cautiously optimistic about the trajectory we are on," Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a virtual briefing on Wednesday. "We want to remain vigilant to do all we can so that this trajectory continues."

The Politico-Morning Consult poll was conducted on Feb. 12-13 with a sample size of 2,005 registered voters. The full survey has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.