SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Nearly half of Rhode Island residents remained at home when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak in the state, according to results released Tuesday from a data analysis conducted by a University of Rhode Island economics professor.
Michael DiNardi, in looking to measure how many people in the Ocean State were remaining at home when the pandemic took its grip on the world, reviewed aggregated anonymous mobile device GPS location data from SafeGraph Inc. and Google Community Mobility Reports, URI said.
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The professor then analyzed data from three different timeframes: Feb. 1 through March 8 before the pandemic hit Rhode Island, March 9-27, and March 28 through May 7. Raimondo declared a state of emergency and issued the stay-at-home order on March 28, when the state announced its first two deaths due to the virus, and lifted the order May 9.
DiNardi said in a statement that he wanted to look more specifically at how stay-at-home policies and work-from-home policies were working in the context of Rhode Island given that the state was, “one of the first states to lock down in a major way.”
In his review of the SafeGraph data, URI said that DiNardi found a rise in the percentage of Rhode Island residents staying home after the March 9 state-of-emergency declaration. Between 20-25% of people were staying home during the Feb. 1 – March 8 period, and that figure rose to nearly 40% on a given day between March 9 and March 27. The percentage increased slightly to 45% after the stay-at-home order was issued March 28 before the numbers leveled off, URI said, and DiNardi saw similar patterns in reviewing the Google data.
“What this shows is that following the state of emergency declaration, people were taking this pandemic seriously and – for those who could – they started to make the decision to stay home. Likewise, businesses were also beginning to shut down or allowing people to work from home,” DiNardi said. “And this was happening prior to the stay-at-home order on March 28.”
URI said DiNardi also noticed in his analysis that about 40% of people are still staying home as of mid-June, even with the state fully into the Phase 2 reopening timeline – which started June 1 – and several protests calling for social justice that have brought thousands of people together across the state in recent weeks.
“Even with the reopening and recent protests, it appears that people got the message and continue to practice distancing,”
While the data helps paint a picture on how Rhode Island responded to the pandemic, DiNardi said it is “hard to make a definitive statement” on what contributed the most in people staying home. He said the impacts on the stay-at-home order and emergency declarations are “tough to pull apart” from other potential factors, such as residents watching the news and businesses deciding to have employees work from home.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
