Cell phone data shows people moving around less after stay-at-home order

Mayra Moreno Image
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
New study shows how we are doing at "social distancing."
Some counties in the Houston-area had residents still venturing far from home as the outbreak grew worse over time.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Harris County's 'stay home' order is expected to be extended past the April 3rd date originally stated.

Most of the community has followed the order and stayed home, but statistically, how are we really dealing with the order and social distancing?

A study from Descartes Lab used people's cell phones to track and measure how far a person roamed from home. They used three dates to compare movement: March 9th, March 16th and March 23rd.

ABC13 looked at some of the local counties.

On March 9th, Harris County residents ventured about 5.4 miles from home. Their movement drastically reduced by 64% on March 23rd, venturing only about 1.9 miles from home.

As for Galveston County, on March 9th, folks ventured 6 miles from home. Then 2 weeks later, that number reduced to 1.9 miles.

Fort Bend County and Montgomery County residents ventured 6.1 and 8 miles respectively from home on March 9th. Then, by March 23rd, Fort Bend folks drastically went down to 1.6 miles, but Montgomery County residents still ventured out 3.4 miles from home.

On March 9th, people in Colorado County ventured 13.3 miles from home and people in Grimes County ventured 16.8 miles.

At the 2 week mark, Colorado County residents were still venturing 10.4 miles from home while Grimes County residents were venturing 10.5 miles from home.

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