Coronavirus In Minnesota: State Among Best In U.S. For Social Distancing So Far
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Gov. Tim Walz says Minnesotans are doing a good job at keeping their distance, and there's data to back it up.
A website called Unacast uses cell-phone data to see how many people are interacting with each other each day.
They've assigned a score to each of the states. Minnesota earned an "A."
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Unacast claims Minnesotans have cut down how much they travel by about 45%.
Washington D.C. is leading the nation's scores, followed by Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
The states that currently rank near the bottom are Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, though those states are generally larger with lower populations and, hence, lower population density.
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Another recent map was put together by health site CPOE.org, looking at geotagged Twitter data since March 1. The map tracked discussion and hashtags about social distancing, like #socialdistancing and #stayhomesaveslives. Over 4 million tweets were tracked for the listing.
According to the map, Minnesota ranks seventh in the nation for social distancing activity. Massachusetts, Oregon and Vermont round out the top three, respectively.
Southern states, like Louisiana, had the least social distancing activity.
For most people affected by COVID-19, symptoms are mild. However, the disease can be threatening to the elderly and people with sensitive lungs. Even so, the vast majority of people who get the virus recover.
Health officials say those with questions about COVID-19 can call the Minnesota Department of Health hotline at 651-201-3920.
