How does Florida rank in social distancing? GPS location data answers that question.
Wonder how many people are practicing social distancing in the United States during the COVID-19 crisis that’s gripped the world?
Well, Unacast, a tech company with offices in New York and Norway, is utilizing data collected from cell phone GPS location to determine which states and counties are performing social distancing the best and worst with the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Grades were given for data collected from Friday through Tuesday, with ‘A’ grades awarded for areas showing more than a 40 percent decrease in distance traveled from pre-COVID-19 to now. An ‘F’ grade was given for areas with less than a 10 percent decrease in distance traveled.
Florida was rated a ‘B.’ The Sunshine State was near a 40 percent dip in cell phone distance traveled, according to Unacast’s map. Manatee County and Sarasota County were given a ‘C’ grade, while Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties each received ‘A’ grades.
There is no shelter in place or stay at home order for Manatee or Sarasota counties, while cities in Miami-Dade and Broward have stay-at-home orders.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not issued a state-wide shutdown. Other states have gone into lockdown mode, however, in an effort to contain COVID-19’s spread.
Unacast’s social distancing scoreboard that lists every state, and Washington D.C., from the best to the worst at practicing social distancing isn’t an exact science as it only pertains to cell phone GPS location movement, which would also have to be turned on. Unacast gathered the data from “games, shopping and utility apps that tens of millions of Americans have installed on their phones,” the Washington Post reported.
Among the top five best practicers of social distancing, according to Unacast’s map, are Washington D.C., Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The worst-performing states are Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
