Smartphone Tracking in COVID Shows Movement Linked to Case Rise
According to a new study which used mobility tracking of cell phone data, a greater movement of people is a strong predictor of increased COVID cases rates.
Until people are widely vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the array of nonpharmaceutical public health interventions such as physical distancing and limiting travel and social contacts will remain the most effective means of controlling COVID. Capturing the interrelationship between human behaviour and infectious diseases is one of the hardest problems in epidemiology.
“Mobility measures capturing human activity through anonymized tracking of smartphones are believed to be reasonable proxies of contact rates outside of one’s own home; these measures can provide more timely and reliable sources of information on contact rates compared with time-use surveys or contact tracing,” the authors wrote.
Researchers looked at anonymised smartphone mobility data from nearly 12 months from March 2020 to March 2021, both at a national and provincial level, while controlling for date and temperature. A 10% increase in the mobility of Canadians outside their homes was found to be associated with a 25% increase in subsequent SARS-CoV-2 weekly growth rates. They investigated at the mobility threshold (the level needed to control the virus) and the mobility gap (the difference between the threshold and actual movement).
“The mobility threshold and mobility gap can be used by public health officials and governments to estimate the level of restrictions needed to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and guide, in real-time, the implementation and intensity of nonpharmaceutical public health interventions to control the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote the authors.
Source: News-Medical.Net
Journal information: Brown, K. A., et al. (2021) The mobility gap: estimating mobility thresholds required to control SARS-CoV-2 in Canada. Canadian Medical Association Journal. doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.210132.
