We’ve all heard the recommendations from the world’s top doctors urging the global public to practice social distancing as a way to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and help flatten the curve. So how good is Utah at social distancing?
Well, pretty average.
The data company Unacast created a social distancing scoreboard that analyzes real-time data to see how well communities have been at keeping their social distance.
The company used anonymized data from millions of smartphones and their daily travels before the COVID-19 pandemic and compared them to travels now.
“Using the change in distance traveled from pre-COVID-19 days as a proxy, we determined a ‘Social Distancing’ score for each county,” the company said.
If the residents of a county dropped their distance traveled by more than 40%, they scored A, and if it was less than 10% they scored an F.
Coming in at the top spot was the nation’s capital with an A ranking where residents dropped their travel by 61%.
They were followed by Nevada (a 55% drop), New Jersey (decreased by 55%), Vermont (a 51% drop), and Massachusetts (also a 51% drop).
Rounding out the bottom was Wyoming, the only state to score F, where the average distance traveled actually went up by 6%.
The other states in ascending order are Montana (a 15% decrease), Hawaii (down by 15%), Idaho (down by 16%) and New Mexico (a drop of 23%).
Utah’s ranking came in at a C. Unacast calculated that the average Utahn reduced their normal travel by 24%. You can see Unacast’s county breakdown below.
Beaver: F / 31%
Box Elder: F / 28%
Cache: B / -34%
Carbon: F / 27%
Daggett: C / -26%
Davis: C / -25%
Duchesne: D / -14%
Emery: F / 42%
Garfield: F / 13%
Grand: F / 15%
Iron: F / 21%
Juab: F / 0%
Kane: C / -28%
Millard: F / -6%
Morgan: F / 11%
Piute: F / 44%
Rich: F / -5%
Salt Lake: B / -37%
San Juan: F / -4%
Sanpete: D / -20%
Sevier: F / 1%
Summit: A / -56%
Tooele: F / 7%
Uintah: C / -20%
Utah: D / -18%
Wasatch: A / -50%
Washington: D / -18%
Wayne: C / -24%
Weber: D / -18%