Cleburne, Randolph counties in Alabama also score low

A new data tool indicates Carroll and Haralson counties — and Georgia as a whole — needs to do better at stopping the spread of the novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

Alabama also scored poorly, with Cleburne County earning an “F” and Randolph County earning a “D-.” The state earned a “D-.”

Carroll County earned a “D-” for social distancing and Haralson scored an “F” in the new scorecard from data firm Unacast. Statewide, Georgia earned a “D.”

Unacast uses a host of available data to monitor metrics essential to social distancing, including the number of people who report that they’re staying home, changes in the time people spend in their home and the average distance that people travel.

The scorecard, which is updated daily, can be found online at https://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard.

“Social distancing — staying at home whenever possible, leaving the house only for essential necessities, self-isolating when sick — is how we reduce the spread of the virus and reduce the numbers of sick so that our healthcare system can keep pace,” said Laura Larson, MD, board-certified in infectious diseases and medical director of infection prevention for Tanner. “If you want to support our healthcare professionals on the front lines of this pandemic, please, stay home.”

Most municipal governments — as well as the Carroll County Board of Health and the Tanner Medical Center Inc. Board of Directors — have passed ordinances and resolutions calling for people to shelter at home.

Sheltering at home reduces the risk of exposure to COVID-19, as well as the risk of bringing the virus home to loved ones.

“Our resources to care for the sick are limited,” said Dr. Larson. “We only have so many beds, so many clinicians and so many ventilators to care for the acutely ill. That’s why ‘flattening the curve’ and limiting how many people get sick is so important.”

Unacast continues to refine their metrics for accuracy. The firm specifies that their data does not identify any individual person, device or household, but monitors the movement of “tens of millions of anonymous mobile phones and their interactions with each other each day.” The company was established in Norway and, since May 2018, has also operated in the United States.

No Georgia counties earned an A, and only three earned “Bs” in Unacast’s metrics, including Fulton, which leads the state in confirmed number of COVID-19 cases. No Alabama counties earned “A” or “B” scores, earning “C” or lower.

More information about Tanner’s COVID-19 response can be found at tanner.org/ncov.