SEOUL, April 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating rose this week, hitting the highest in about one and a half years, a weekly poll showed Thursday.
According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon gained 3.1 percentage points over the week to 55.7 percent this week. It was the highest since the fourth week of October 2018.
The negative assessment on Moon's conduct of state affairs declined 2.6 percentage points to 39.7 percent, falling below 40 percent in about 17 months since November 2018.
Moon's support score has risen recently amid the spread of positive public views over the government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In the latest tally, the country reported 22 more confirmed cases of the COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, raising the total number to 10,613. The daily caseload stayed below 50 for the eighth consecutive day.
Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party gained 2.6 percentage points over the week to 45.2 percent this week, marking the highest in about one and a half years.
The main conservative United Future Party garnered 29.5 percent of support this week, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous week.
The minor progressive Justice Party won 5.2 percent of approval rating, followed by the centrist People's Party with 4.2 percent and the center-left Party for People's Livelihoods with 3.2 percent.
The results were based on a survey of 1,522 voters conducted from Monday to Tuesday. It had plus and minus 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95-percent confidence level.
