NC Is Not Social Distancing: What New Scoreboard Found

CHARLOTTE, NC — When it comes to socially distancing in order to slow the spread of novel coronavirus, North Carolinians have a lot of work to do, according to a social distancing scoreboard developed to grade state and county efforts.

The new interactive tool was developed and launched in late March by Unacast, a New York City and Norway-based company that analyzes human mobility data.

According to Unacast's Social Distancing Scoreboard, North Carolina received an overall grade of F, a dramatic downturn from the B grade it received in late March.

The scoreboard also says there is less than a 25 percent decrease in average mobility, a less that 55 percent reduction in non-essential visits and a less than 40 percent decrease in encounters density compared to the national baseline since the coronavirus outbreak was first confirmed in the United States.

When the new coronavirus hit the United States, Unacast saw an opportunity to provide a service to local and state officials, as well as the general public, according to Thomas Walle, CEO and co-founder of Unacast.

"We sat down and asked ourselves, 'How can we help? What can we do?'" Walle said. "Something we're really good at as a company is understanding social behavior, and our goal was to create awareness around what social distancing policies and guidelines are working, and which ones are not."

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To calculate a state or county's grade on the scoreboard, Unacast used real-time location data from tens of millions of mobile phones and calculated the average distance being traveled now compared with before the coronavirus outbreak. The organization then took that data and juxtaposed it against the number of confirmed cases in the state or county, as reported by the Corona Data Scraper.

Unacast used anonymous data that does not track the travels of any individual person, the company said.

States and counties receiving an A grade in the category of percent change in average distance traveled, for example, are seeing a decrease in movement of more than 70 percent, while those receiving a B are seeing a decrease of between 55 and 70 percent. Those that received a failing grade are seeing a decrease in movement of less than 25 percent.

States topping the list according to scoreboard grade as of May 1are:

1. Nevada (B-)
2. Hawaii (C)
3. Washington, D.C. (C)
4. Alaska (C-)
5. Montana (C-)

The bottom five states on the list as of May 1 are:

1. Ohio (F)
2. Tennessee (F)
3. North Carolina (F)
4. South Carolina (F)
5. Georgia (F)

Drilling down the information by county, five counties in North Carolina receiving the highest grades in the state include Jackson County (B-), Hyde County (B-), Gates County (B-), Tyrrell County (B-) and Bertie County (B-).

Social distancing is defined as deliberately increasing the physical space between people to avoid spreading illness, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. It is a containment strategy advised by both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Examples of social distancing include:

• Working from home instead of at the office.
• Closing schools or switching to online classes.
• Visiting loved ones via electronic devices instead of in person.
• Canceling or postponing conferences and large meetings.

Read more about the organization's methodology in determining a state or county's grade.