Google Will Offer Government Massive Trove Of ‘Mobility Data’ To Assist With Social Distancing Measures

The Wall Street Journal: Google Offers User Location Data To Health Officials Tackling Coronavirus
Google will help public health officials use its vast storage of data to track people’s movements amid the coronavirus pandemic, in what the company called an effort to assist in “unprecedented times.” The initiative, announced by the company late Thursday, uses a portion of the information that the search giant has collected on users, including through Google Maps, to create reports on the degree to which locales are abiding by social-distancing measures. The “mobility reports” will be posted publicly and show, for instance, whether particular localities, states or countries are seeing more or less people flow into shops, grocery stores, pharmacies and parks. (Copeland, 4/3)

Politico: Google Wielding Its Vast Troves Of Phone-Tracking Data In Virus Fight
The announcement marks the most public acknowledgment yet of the role that data on people's movements — derived from smartphones — is playing in the U.S. public health response to the virus outbreak. Countries in Europe and Asia have more openly wielded data from phones and mobile apps in their efforts to stem the spread of the illness, which has infected more than 1 million people worldwide. Google's report will show how foot traffic has increased or declined to six types of destinations: homes, workplaces, retail and recreation establishments, parks, grocery stores and pharmacies, and transit stations. (Overly, 4/3)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. And Europe Turn To Phone-Tracking Strategies To Halt Spread Of Coronavirus
Western governments aiming to relax restrictions on movement are turning to unprecedented surveillance to track people infected with the new coronavirus and identify those with whom they have been in contact. Governments in China, Singapore, Israel and South Korea that are already using such data credit the practice with helping slow the spread of the virus. The U.S. and European nations, which have often been more protective of citizens’ data than those countries, are now looking at a similar approach, using apps and cellphone data. (Marson, Stupp and Hinshaw, 4/3)

The New York Times: Location Data Says It All: Staying At Home During Coronavirus Is A Luxury
It has been about two weeks since the Illinois governor ordered residents to stay at home, but nothing has changed about Adarra Benjamin’s responsibilities. She gets on a bus nearly every morning in Chicago, traveling 20 miles round trip some days to cook, clean and shop for her clients, who are older or have health problems that make such tasks difficult. Ms. Benjamin knows the dangers, but she needs her job, which pays about $13 an hour. She also cannot imagine leaving her clients to fend for themselves. “They’ve become my family,” she said. (Valentino-DeVries, Lu and Dance, 4/3)

Reuters: Do Social Distancing Better, White House Doctor Tells Americans. Trump Objects
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House task force on the coronavirus, had a message for Americans on Thursday: do better at social distancing. President Donald Trump didn’t like the message. At what has become a daily briefing by the president and his advisers, Birx, a highly respected expert in global health, has served the role of explainer, walking journalists and the public through the data behind federal recommendations designed to slow the virus’s spread. (Mason, 4/2)

CNN: Dr. Anthony Fauci: Says 'I Don't Understand Why' Every State Hasn't Issued Stay-At-Home Orders 
The nation's top infectious disease expert said Thursday he doesn't understand why every state hasn't issued stay-at-home orders as novel coronavirus cases continue to surge across the US. "I don't understand why that's not happening," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Anderson Cooper during CNN's coronavirus town hall. (LeBlanc, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: Public Compliance With COVID-19 Precautions Soars, Survey Shows
The percentage of Americans who are sheltering in place and engaging in social distancing soared in late March as the public began taking the coronavirus pandemic more seriously, though differences between Democrats and Republicans remain significant, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey. The survey found the pandemic is hitting Americans hard, with 39% saying they've already lost a job or income due to the crisis, 45% saying the stress is affecting their mental health, and 34% saying they've been unable to get needed medical care unrelated to COVID-19. (Meyer, 4/2)

The New York Times: How Fast The Coronavirus Outbreak Is Growing In Hundreds Of U.S. Communities
The New York metropolitan area has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. But growth in cases and deaths also continues in other parts of the United States, including large metros like New Orleans and Detroit, and some smaller ones like Albany, Ga., where a large funeral apparently seeded many cases. If current patterns hold, several communities are on track to have epidemics as serious as New York’s. (Katz, Quealy and Sanger-Katz, 4/3)

Bloomberg: Next Virus ‘Hot Spots’ Seen As Michigan, Connecticut, Indiana
The rate of positive coronavirus tests suggests that the next “hot spots” could include Michigan, Connecticut, Indiana, Georgia and Illinois, said White House virus task-force coordinator Deborah Birx. “We do have two states that have 35% positives. And that’s New York and New Jersey. So that confirms very clearly that that’s a very clear and an important hot zone.” Birx told reporters at a White House briefing on Thursday evening. Louisiana’s positive test rate is 26%. (Jacobs and Fabian, 4/2)

The Hill: Cities Across The Country In Danger Of Becoming Coronavirus Hotspots 
All eyes are on New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus in the U.S., but experts warn other areas of the country are at risk of becoming hot spots. Cities in the South and Midwest, in particular, are in danger of becoming the next hot spots as data shows cases there are increasing rapidly and haven’t yet peaked. “Every city is in danger of looking like the challenges we've seen in Wuhan, in Italy and in New York City,” Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in a call with reporters Wednesday. (Hellmann, 4/2)

CIDRAP: Southern States Face Growing COVID-19 Crises
Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia, who said this morning he just learned that the novel coronavirus could be spread by asymptomatic carriers, issued a statewide stay-at-home order today, following a similar announcement yesterday by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Both Kemp and DeSantis have resisted shutting down state economies during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Soucheray, 4/2)

The Washington Post: As Virus Takes Hold, Resistance To Stay-At-Home Orders Remains Widespread — Exposing Political And Social Rifts
Kay Ivey, the Republican governor of Alabama, put down a marker last week in affirming that it was “not the time to order people to shelter in place.” “Y’all, we are not Louisiana, we are not New York state, we are not California,” she said, suggesting that the fate of hard-hit parts of the country would not be shared by Alabama. In Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Parson said he was not inclined to “make a blanket policy,” adding, “It’s going to come down to individual responsibilities.” (Stanley-Becker and Janes, 4/2)

The New York Times: Where America Didn’t Stay Home Even As The Virus Spread
Stay-at-home orders have nearly halted travel for most Americans, but people in Florida, the Southeast and other places that waited to enact such orders have continued to travel widely, potentially exposing more people as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates, according to an analysis of cellphone location data by The New York Times. The divide in travel patterns, based on anonymous cellphone data from 15 million people, suggests that Americans in wide swaths of the West, Northeast and Midwest have complied with orders from state and local officials to stay home. (4/2)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Surges In Florida; Stay-At-Home Order May Be Too Late
Slowly and reluctantly over the past month, as coronavirus infections grew from almost none to nearly 8,000 and more than 125 residents have died, Florida has sobered up. Under mounting pressure, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week ordered most Floridians to remain at home starting Friday, a move that more than 30 U.S. states had already taken in an effort to slow the spread of a deadly viral infection with no vaccine and no cure. But as case counts climb in the nation’s third most-populous state — one home to bustling international airports, swarms of tourists and many vulnerable residents — many are now left to wait and wonder if the latest restrictions came in time, and what lies ahead for the Sunshine State. (Wootson, Rozsa and Dennis, 4/2)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Governor Puts Georgia On Lockdown
Gov. Brian Kemp ordered Georgians to stay at home, with few exceptions, until at least April 13 to help curb the ever-worsening spread of the novel coronavirus.Issuing a shelter-in-place mandate that temporarily alters the daily lives of the state’s 10.6 million residents, Kemp abandoned his earlier declarations that the coronavirus pandemic did not require the extreme measures in Georgia that more than three dozen other states had already dictated. (Judd, Wickert and Bluestein, 4/2)

ProPublica: Rural Counties Consider An Alternative Type Of Social Distancing — Kicking Chicago Out Of Illinois
As she sat Wednesday on the covered deck at the 4-Way Saloon in Sidell, overlooking the town grain elevator, Leslie Powell made her way down the list of tasks she had scribbled on her yellow notepad. Asking the utility company for a payment plan was first. Powell’s husband, Mark, became owner of this busy little bar and grill in east-central Illinois just nine days before Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered residents across the state to shelter in place in an attempt to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Jaffe and Eldeib, 4/3)

ProPublica: Meet The Pastors Holding In-Person Services During Coronavirus
At least 25 parishioners filed into a beige-brick church here Wednesday evening and were handed rubber gloves at the door. A handwritten sign directed them to designated areas with seats that had been spaced 6 feet apart. Another sign laid out five things people should do to keep from spreading the new strain of coronavirus, including staying away if they felt sick. The founding pastor of City on a Hill, Juan Bustamante, was in a particularly good mood. A day earlier, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joined 30-plus other governors around the country in issuing a statewide stay-at-home order — though he declined to refer to it as such — that also designated religious services as essential. (Collier, Davila and Trevizo, 4/2)

The New York Times: Cities That Went All In On Social Distancing In 1918 Emerged Stronger For It
As the first local influenza deaths were counted in the fall of 1918, officials in Minneapolis moved quickly — more aggressively than even state health officials thought was wise — and shut down the city. They closed schools, churches, theaters and pool halls, effective midnight on Oct. 12. Across the Mississippi River, St. Paul remained largely open into November, with its leaders confident they had the epidemic under control. Fully three weeks after Minneapolis — with The St. Paul Pioneer Press pleading “In Heaven’s Name Do Something!” — St. Paul ordered sweeping closures, too. (Badger and Bui, 4/3)

Stat: Americans Are Underestimating Duration Of Coronavirus Crisis, Experts Say
Public health experts are increasingly worried that Americans are underestimating how long the coronavirus pandemic will disrupt everyday life in the country, warning that the Trump administration’s timelines are offering many a false sense of comfort. Coronavirus cases are expected to peak in mid-April in many parts of the country, but quickly reopening businesses or loosening shelter-in-place rules would inevitably lead to a new surge of infections, they said. (Branswell, 4/3)

NBC News: Coronavirus: American In Wuhan Warns U.S. Over Lockdowns
An American who spent more than two months locked down in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus epidemic first emerged, is urging people back home to prepare for a lengthy interruption to their lives. “Don't go into this thinking it's going to be over in a few weeks,” Benjamin Wilson told NBC News from his apartment in Wuhan where he and his family spent eight weeks in confinement. (Simmons and Talmazan, 4/3)

CIDRAP: Before-Symptom Spread May Complicate COVID-19 Containment 
When conducting contact tracing as a COVID-19 containment measure, public health officials should include people with whom the infected person had contact before that person had symptoms, according to a study published yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The study adds to mounting evidence of this type of spread and underscores the difficulty of identifying and isolating infected people. (Van Beusekom, 4/2)