More Americans are saying they don't think the US government is prepared to handle the novel coronavirus as the outbreak continues to spread, according to a new Insider poll.

Fifty percent of Americans over the weekend said the federal government was not prepared for coronavirus cases, up from 40% of respondents who said so two weeks ago.

The rising doubt among Americans comes as the virus has rapidly spread across the country.

President Donald Trump has faced criticism for downplaying the severity of the situation and failing to act quickly.

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A growing number of Americans are saying they don't think the federal government is prepared to handle the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to a new Insider poll, as the government is ramping up its response to the virus' spread.

Half of Americans who were polled Friday and Saturday said the federal government was not prepared for coronavirus cases in the US, up from 40% of respondents two weeks ago.

The shrinking confidence among Americans indicated in the poll comes amid criticism President Donald Trump has acted too slowly to combat the virus, playing down the threat until the US saw more than 2,000 cases.

On Friday, Trump declared a national emergency that would free up $50 billion in federal funding to respond to the virus with additional tests, medical facilities, and other supplies.

In a press conference detailing the new funding, Trump made several incorrect and misleading claims. Perhaps most confusingly, the recently appointed White House coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, presented plans for an online diagnostic platform designed for users to input their symptoms into an online questionnaire to see whether they should be tested for the virus.

The plan was hailed as a move by the administration to increase Americans' access to tests for the virus in a private-sector partnership with Google. But Wired reported that the company was taken by surprise at the announcement because it was a project with its sister company and not able to perform the functions Birx described.

In addition to the national emergency, Trump also announced Saturday he had been tested for the coronavirus after interacting with several people who later tested positive. He said he was awaiting results.

The administration also announced Saturday that it was confronting the virus' worldwide spread — which has infected more than 150,000 people and killed more than 5,700 — with additional bans on most travel from Ireland and the United Kingdom.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income. A total of 1,081 respondents were collected March 13-14, a margin of error plus or minus 3.08 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.