Associations between phone mobility data and COVID-19 cases

In response to a recent study revealing a strong correlation between phone mobility data and decreased COVID-19 case growth rates in select US counties, implying that phone mobility data could serve as a proxy for social distancing, researchers at CDDEP expanded the analysis to include longer time frames. The analysis revealed that, while there was a strong correlation between phone mobility data and COVID-19 growth rates in the time period around initial state-level shutdowns, this correlation weakened at later stages as broad public health measures were implemented across the US. This led the authors to suggest that  phone mobility data captured only one of the many components of behaviors associated with social distancing. [Lancet Infectious Disease]