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Human mobility trends during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Minha Lee
  • Jun Zhao
  • Qianqian Sun
  • Yixuan Pan
  • Weiyi Zhou
  • Chenfeng Xiong
  • Lei Zhang

Abstract

In March of this year, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and it continues to threaten public health. This global health crisis imposes limitations on daily movements, which have deteriorated every sector in our society. Understanding public reactions to the virus and the non-pharmaceutical interventions should be of great help to fight COVID-19 in a strategic way. We aim to provide tangible evidence of the human mobility trends by comparing the day-by-day variations across the U.S. from January 2020 to early April 2020. Large-scale public mobility at an aggregated level is observed by leveraging mobile device location data and the measures related to social distancing. Our study captures spatial and temporal heterogeneity as well as the sociodemographic variations and teleworking trends regarding the pandemic propagation and the non-pharmaceutical mobility interventions. All metrics adapted capture decreased public movements after the national emergency declaration. The population staying home has increased in all states before the stay-at-home mandates implemented and becomes more stable after the order with a smaller range of fluctuation. The public had been taking active responses, voluntarily staying home more, to the in-state confirmed cases while the stay-at-home orders stabilize the variations. As the estimated teleworking rates also continue to incline throughout the study period, the teleworking trend can be another driving factor for the growing stay-at-home population. We confirm that there exists overall mobility heterogeneity between the income or population density groups. The study suggests that public mobility trends are in line with the government message urging to stay home. We anticipate our data-driven analysis offers integrated perspectives and serves as evidence to raise public awareness and, consequently, reinforce the importance of social distancing while assisting policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Minha Lee & Jun Zhao & Qianqian Sun & Yixuan Pan & Weiyi Zhou & Chenfeng Xiong & Lei Zhang, 2020. "Human mobility trends during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-15, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0241468
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241468
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    13. Wang, Jueyu & Kaza, Nikhil & McDonald, Noreen C. & Khanal, Kshitiz, 2022. "Socio-economic disparities in activity-travel behavior adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-78.
    14. Hintermann, Beat & Schoeman, Beaumont & Molloy, Joseph & Schatzmann, Thomas & Tchervenkov, Christopher & Axhausen, Kay W., 2023. "The impact of COVID-19 on mobility choices in Switzerland," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    15. Singh, Suraj Shirodkar & Javanmard, Reyhane & Lee, Jinhyung & Kim, Junghwan & Diab, Ehab, 2021. "The new BRT system has led to an overall increase in transit-based accessibility to essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic: Empirical evidence from Winnipeg, Canada," OSF Preprints anjd7, Center for Open Science.
    16. Yin, Xuecheng & Büyüktahtakın, İ. Esra & Patel, Bhumi P., 2023. "COVID-19: Data-Driven optimal allocation of ventilator supply under uncertainty and risk," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(1), pages 255-275.

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