Monday’s Mainichi front-paged the results of its nationwide telephone poll conducted on Saturday and Sunday. Reportedly 53% of the respondents did not approve of the Abe administration’s response to the new coronavirus outbreak, while 39% did. Noting that the rate of approval dropped from 49% from a month ago, the paper speculated that the timing of the administration’s decision to declare a state of emergency and plan to provide cash allowances probably affected the public’s feelings on the cabinet’s handling of the crisis. Support for the Abe cabinet stood at 41%, down 2 percentage points, while nonsupport stood at 42%, up 4 points.