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Public Compliance With Social Distancing Measures and SARS-CoV-2 Spread: A Quantitative Analysis of 5 States.
- Source :
- Public Health Reports; Jul/Aug2021, Vol. 136 Issue 4, p475-482, 8p
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Objective: We quantified the association between public compliance with social distancing measures and the spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the first wave of the epidemic (March–May 2020) in 5 states that accounted for half of the total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States. Methods: We used data on mobility and number of COVID-19 cases to longitudinally estimate associations between public compliance, as measured by human mobility, and the daily reproduction number and daily growth rate during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. Results: The 5 states mandated social distancing directives during March 19-24, 2020, and public compliance with mandates started to decrease in mid-April 2020. As of May 31, 2020, the daily reproduction number decreased from 2.41-5.21 to 0.72-1.19, and the daily growth rate decreased from 0.22-0.77 to –0.04 to 0.05 in the 5 states. The level of public compliance, as measured by the social distancing index (SDI) and daily encounter-density change, was high at the early stage of implementation but decreased in the 5 states. The SDI was negatively associated with the daily reproduction number (regression coefficients range, –0.04 to –0.01) and the daily growth rate (from –0.009 to –0.01). The daily encounter-density change was positively associated with the daily reproduction number (regression coefficients range, 0.24 to 1.02) and the daily growth rate (from 0.05 to 0.26). Conclusions: Social distancing is an effective strategy to reduce the incidence of COVID-19 and illustrates the role of public compliance with social distancing measures to achieve public health benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00333549
- Volume :
- 136
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Public Health Reports
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 150872237
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00333549211011254