Cell phone tracking data shows rural residents not staying home

Source: Unacast ‘social distancing scoreboard’ – Data is through March 28 (USA Tennessee Network). Article by Brett Kelman. The Tennessean.

Apr 4, 2020 at 12:01 AM

Nashville residents have cut daily movements in half since coronavirus first came to the city, but rural counties across Tennessee have made much less progress towards slowing the outbreak, according to data collected from millions of smart phones.

This phone data contributed to Gov. Bill Lee’s Thursday decision to lock down the state by ordering residents to stay in their homes. The governor previously resisted this action, choosing instead to urge — not order — residents to stay home. But Lee said a combination of phone tracking and traffic flow data ultimately changed his mind.

“We clearly saw data in the last two or three days that changed the movement of Tennesseans, and that was very worrisome and it was also very dangerous,” Lee said. “It’s hard to know why that has happened. We just know that it has.”

This cell phone tracking data, released online by technology startup Unacast, offers a rough measurement of how many residents are staying inside and avoiding travel and gatherings. In four counties where the virus has hit hardest — Davidson, Shelby, Williamson and Sumner — data shows the movement of cell phones decreased by 50%, 44%, 49% and 46%, respectively. Most of the largest drops occurred on the same dates that city officials shutdown schools and closed non-essential businesses. […]

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