COVID-19 outbreak response: a first assessment of mobility changes in Italy following national lockdown

Abstract

AbstractItaly is currently experiencing the largest COVID-19 outbreak in Europe so far, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases. Following the identification of the first infections, on February 21, 2020, national authorities have put in place an increasing number of restrictions aimed at containing the outbreak and delaying the epidemic peak. Since March 12, the whole country is under lockdown. Here we provide the first quantitative assessment of the impact of such measures on the mobility and the spatial proximity of Italians, through the analysis of a large-scale dataset on de-identified, geo-located smartphone users. With respect to pre-outbreak averages, we estimate a reduction of 50% of the total trips between Italian provinces, following the lockdown. In the same week, the average users’ radius of gyration has declined by about 50% and the average degree of the users’ proximity network has dropped by 47% at national level.