November 30, 2020

Quantifying Human Mobility Behaviour Changes during the COVID-19 Outbreak in the United States

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

Keywords (Tags): non-pharm interventions, public health, social distancing

A study assessing human mobility changes in the US from February to May indicated that government orders and the severity of local SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks significantly contributed to the strength of social distancing in the United States. The study used an integrated dataset of mobile device location data and constructed a Social Distancing Index to evaluate changes in people’s movement patterns along with the spread of SARS-CoV-2 at different geographic levels. 

Pan et al. (Nov 26, 2020). Quantifying Human Mobility Behaviour Changes during the COVID-19 Outbreak in the United States. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77751-2