SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating rose to the highest this year on positive assessment over the government's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, a weekly poll showed Thursday.
According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon advanced 3.2 percentage points over the week to 52.5 percent this week. It was this year's highest figure, the pollster noted.
The negative assessment on Moon's conduct of state affairs declined 3.8 percentage points to 44.1 percent.
It came as the positive public sentiment grew over the Moon government's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 9,000 here, but the daily caseload slowed down in recent days.
Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party rose 2.9 percentage points over the week to 45.0 percent, but approval score for the main conservative opposition United Future Party slipped 3.8 percentage points to 29.8 percent.
It was followed by the minor progressive Justice Party with 4.7 percent of support, the centrist People's Party with 3.6 percent and the center-left Party for People's Livelihoods with 2.1 percent each.
The results were based on a poll of 1,518 voters conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had plus and minus 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.
