Coronavirus: Reports Find Social Distancing Works, Must Continue
SEATTLE, WA — A pair of new reports from the Bellevue-based Institute for Disease Modeling shows promising results for social distancing efforts in Washington, but researchers say it is essential those measures continue to succeed in limiting the peak of the coronavirus outbreak.
The IDM released the reports Monday, examining the effectiveness of current policies to limit the virus's spread in King County and the Seattle metro. Researchers analyzed information from state and county health departments, and anonymized mobility data from Facebook to compare transmission rates against decreasing public movements.
From Seattle and King County Public Health:
"The IDM researchers then looked to see if these reductions in mobility could be related to reductions in COVID-19 transmission. Using a simulation of COVID-19 testing, diagnosis and death data for King County, they found that a measure of transmission, called the effective reproductive number, dropped by about half from about 2.7 in late February to roughly 1.4 on March 18th. This number represents the number of new transmissions stemming from each infection. In order to sustain a drop in new cases, each infected person, on average, must infect fewer than one person."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-reports-find-social-distancing-works-must-continue/ar-BB11VCtd?ocid=hplocalnews