Trump's approval rating drops amid COVID-19 resurgence in US

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump's approval rating registered a decrease to 44 percent amid rapidly surging COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, a recent US poll has found.

The poll, conducted online by US media outlet The Hill and survey research company HarrisX on July 24-26, collected the opinions of 2,842 registered voters in the United States.

The approval rating figure decreased 2 percentage points compared with a same survey conducted three weeks ago, the poll said.

In addition, 58 percent of registered voters in the poll expressed disapproval of Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, while 42 percent showed approval.

US COVID-19 deaths have passed the 150,000 mark on Wednesday, with the country's caseload exceeding 4.4 million as of Wednesday evening, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

As the country is struggling with a resurgence of COVID-19, a new federal report published by The New York Times has found that 21 US states now have coronavirus outbreaks serious enough to place them in the government's so-called "red zone."