Trump initially played down the impact of the outbreak but has since changed his tune. On the first day of the poll, he declared a national emergency , freeing up financial resources to assist Americans affected by the health and economic crisis.

The most recent Gallup poll was conducted from March 13 to 22, around the time Trump began responding more seriously to the coronavirus, which has roiled markets and infected hundreds of thousands of people globally.

This is the second time Trump has received a 49% approval rating in a Gallup poll. The first time was in a February poll conducted at the time of his impeachment trial .

Earlier this month, Trump's approval rating was at 44%, according to Gallup. The 5-point boost comes amid the president's near daily participation in coronavirus task force briefings and series of moves to combat the pandemic in the United States.

In the latest Gallup poll , released Tuesday, Trump's approval rating hit 49%, matching his best performance in the poll.

During an election year, any bump could have significant ramifications.

Crises are often the ticket to higher approval ratings for politicians, and President Donald Trump , it appears, is no exception.

Since then, he has pledged to waive all interest on federal student loans as the coronavirus wreaks havoc on the economy. But a week after his promise, borrowers said they were still being charged interest.

And last week, following mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers, Trump said he would put the Korean War-era Defense Production Act "into gear" to mobilize private business resources to fight the coronavirus. The act enables the government to compel businesses to manufacture supplies needed during a crisis, such as medical masks, ventilators, gloves and testing swabs.

But he has not taken much advantage of that wartime power. The administration first used it on Tuesday to gain access to 60,000 coronavirus test kits, according to Politico. Several governors, mayors and police and fire departments have been begging Trump to use the act to increase production of protective gear for first responders.

The Trump administration's coronavirus task force on March 16 released guidelines that urged Americans for a two-week period to avoid going to restaurants or bars or attending social gatherings of more than 10 individuals, and recommended most employees work from home.

But Trump has in the last few days indicated that he would like to loosen those measures to restart the crashing economy by Easter, despite the virus' acceleration.

Trump gets good marks in the Gallup poll for his handling of the crisis.

Sixty percent of Americans indicated they approve of the way the president is steering the country in response to the pandemic, while 38% said they disapprove.

Nearly all Republicans surveyed in the poll, 94%, said they approved of his response, while 60% of independents and 27% of Democrats said the same, according to Gallup.

The poll, which had a margin of error of 4 percentage points, comes on the heels of other public surveys that have shown Trump's popularity creeping upward recently.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted between March 18 and 19 found that 55% of people approve of the way Trump is handling the outbreak.

On March 25, Trump matched his highest approval rating on Real Clear Politics, with 46.3% of respondents saying they approved of the job he was doing overall.

Still, Trump is not enjoying the kind of boost that other presidents have received during disasters. The president's approval rating has consistently hovered below 50% in national polls throughout his term.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted between March 11 and 13 found that only 45% of people approved of the way Trump was handling the outbreak, while 51% did not.

Following 9/11, a catastrophe that galvanized the nation in similar fashion to the current crisis, former President George Bush's approval rating skyrocketed in the days after, hovering between 86% and 90%.

Trump is managing the pandemic amid the backdrop of the 2020 election. It's all but certain that former Vice President Joe Biden will be the Democratic challenger. Sen. Bernie Sanders has yet to drop out of the race, but Biden is the leader by far among pledged delegates.

Trump lags in the race against Biden, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average. Biden has 50.9% of support, compared with Trump's 43.9%.