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University of Maryland research shows we still need work on social distancing

Published 
Coronavirus
FOX 5 DC

UMD researchers tracking social distancing ranks DMV in the top 20

Researchers at the University of Maryland are tracking social distancing in the DMV, and they say several Northern Virginia counties top the list.

BALTIMORE, Md. - Researchers at the University of Maryland continue  track social distancing compliance here in the DMV and around the country.

Ultimately, some people are still not following social distancing guidelines designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease.

Even so, DC, Maryland and Virginia all reportedly rank in the top 20 for social distancing.

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This is the interactive analytics platform developed by researchers at the University of Maryland.

They've been tracking social distancing, mobility, health and economic factors for more than a month.

The platform apparently uses anonymized and aggregated location data from mobile devices and more.

The results are then reportedly scaled to the population of each county and state.

Researchers say several counties in northern Virginia are topping the list of social distancing compliance.

Sepehr Ghader, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Maryland Transportation Institute, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland says, “These are the top counties in our area - Falls Church, Arlington, Alexandria and Montgomery. Basically we can see if they are making trips longer than 1 mile in that case we can say they’re not staying homeYou can also see how many trips an anonymized Device is makingAnalyze trip rates we can analyze distance traveled and we can analyze if devices are staying or making movement.”

Worst areas for practicing social distancing in our area are near the eastern shore in Maryland.