Emotional people are looking for someone to blame for the virus and it's consequences; and the nation's leader is the obvious scapegoat. By the time a GE comes along they'll have likely cooled down, look at the issues more rationally, and realise it's management was a learning process with those in charge firefighting it, and doing what seemed to achieve the best balance at the time. The virus has and will make for a difficult time, but we will be recovering lost economy by the time of the next GE. So this popularity drop is likely to be a blip.