In the last poll before South Korea's National Assembly election, President Moon stands at 57% in Gallup Korea polling, 15pp higher than late February when the outbreak was at its peak. 1/

The poll was conducted April 7-8, just outside the 7-day moratorium on the reporting of new polling results that Korean election law mandates. 2/

Most striking is the reason for disapproval. 19% say handling of COVID-19 is reason. First time in 6 weeks or so that it is not ranked 1. 59% say they approve of COVID-19 handling. 3/

Two weeks ago I thought there was a chance that conservatives could outperform the polls based on ideological stance of Independents within the polling. They look a lot like conservatives. 4/

But wow....rarely do you see such a definitive break in polling data. Sharp decrease for Independents with almost all that support swinging toward the Democratic Party. 5/

And a slim majority (51%) now want the ruling party--the Democratic Party--to stay in power. One month ago that number was 43%. 6/

If you look at the overall numbers, concern about COVID-19 appears to have leveled off, with 68 percent saying they remain concerned. 7/

But if you look behind those numbers, there is a clear lessening of intensity. Those saying they are very concerned have declined considerably. 8/

The same trend is happening for the numbers about concern of catching the virus. 9/