Social Distancing May Have Saved 10,000 Lives in Connecticut, Report Finds

You know all that talk about social distancing and staying home? Well, according to a new study, it may have saved up to 10,000 lives here in Connecticut.

So, here we are, another week of sheltering in place observing social distancing. But the good news is, it seems to be working.

According datahaven.org, a Connecticut company that has done some research on the effects of social distancing and the COVID-19 virus, has found out that yes, we are lowing the curve by staying away from each other, according to WFSB.

So just how did they come up with these figures? The study was based on cell phone data measuring the number of miles individuals moved around each day, and once the social distancing, stay home initiatives went into effect, Connecticut residents’ average mobility steadily declined from 4.7 miles on March 12 to less than half a mile on March 23.

Mark Abraham with DataHaven described the methodology to wfsb.com.

We used data from a New York Times Epidemiological Model of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the United States. Using it, it was able to set parameters to reflect the start of social distancing in Connecticut: March 23.

It was also able to look at the estimates of the number of deaths without the practice based on the most current state population.

In other words if people had been sort of going about their daily lives and everything would have stayed normal, there would have been about half the population that would have been infected by this Fall that would have lead to something like 17,000 deaths. Our study shows the positive impact of social distance by congratulating people for following guidelines. We did want to point out that the work residents have done to stay home to help keep their neighbors safe, so far, has saved about 10,000 lives.

By no means does this mean the state is out of the woods yet, as COVID-19 cases continued to rise from April 17 through April 22. Also, as of April 22, and according to WFSB, Stamford, Norwalk, Danbury, West Haven, Bridgeport, New Haven, Bloomfield, Greenwich, and Woodbridge had the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 cases in the state.

One thing we can all count on is that since it's been so effective, social distancing will continue to be the new norm, even after the state re-opens.