NORTH CAROLINA — As the spread of coronavirus accelerated in recent weeks, more and more Americans have come under state or local stay-at-home orders and advisories, until this past weekend more than 95 percent of the population was affected.
A stay-at-home order for all of North Carolina went into effect March 30.
The purpose of these orders and advisories is to minimize the spread of the virus, which is highly contagious, although the scope of the orders varies by state and locality. Compliance with them varies widely, too, as Google has demonstrated with its community mobility reports, and by the business data firm Cuebiq, which compiled its COVID-19 Mobility Insights. Both aggregate location data from cellphones to track the movements of large numbers of people.
Don’t miss the latest coronavirus updates from health and government officials in North Carolina. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters for what you need to know daily.
The data is aggregated and anonymized, Google said, so that individuals are not tracked by identity.
As of March 29, Google reports that nationwide movement to retail and recreational locations, including restaurants, shopping centers, movie theaters and the like, dropped 47 percent against a baseline set for the weeks Jan. 3 to Feb. 6.
Travel to groceries and pharmacies fell 22 percent; to parks, to beaches and gardens 19 percent; to transport hubs such as bus and train stations, 51 percent; and to workplaces 42 percent. Mobility to places of residence showed the only increase, of 16 percent.
In North Carolina, which had piecemeal stay-at-home orders before the statewide mandate that went into effect March 30, compliance was lower.
As of March 29, Google reports that statewide movement to retail and recreational locations, dropped 40 percent against the baseline. Travel to groceries and pharmacies fell 15 percent; to transport hubs and similar locations, plunged by 51 percent; and to workplaces by 35 percent.
Mobility to places of residence increased 10 percent and to parks, beaches and gardens went up by 13 percent.
In general, compliance is higher in urban areas of the Northeast, upper Midwest and West Coast than in rural areas, the South and the Great Plains.
The data comes with several important caveats:
-
Tracking location does not show how often or how closely people come into contact with each other, and is not necessarily a predictor of infection.
-
Rural residents often must travel farther to get groceries or other necessities, while city dwellers don’t have to move far to infect others.
-
Higher-income residents often are able to comply more easily than low-income residents, whose jobs do not always allow them to work from home.
But public health experts agree that abiding by stay-at-home orders and advisories is critical to slowing the spread of the virus, or in “flattening the curve” of infection. Such measures are deemed so important that authorities have instructed police to break up large gatherings of people, and even begun arresting those who violate stay-at-home orders.
The methodology of the Google report can be found at the end of this document.
RELATED:
This article originally appeared on the Charlotte Patch