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In response to COVID-19, many states have implemented social distancing orders, but the effect of these orders on population mobility has not been fully quantified. Here, the authors use data from the US to show that state-level social distancing orders substantially reduced mobility and limited the spread of disease.

A global analysis generating high-resolution maps of travel time shows that 91.1% of the world’s population can reach a hospital or clinic within an hour if they have access to motorized transportation, but only 56.7% can do so by walking, highlighting additional inequities for underserved populations accessing healthcare.

Gligorić, Kamath, Weiss et al. evaluate revealed versus potential travel times to healthcare facilities in over 100 countries using anonymized smartphone location history data. The authors study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel times and correlate travel times with key population health indicators.