DEEN

Corona Study by GIM and University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

October 14, 2020

Dr. Sebastian Bönisch, Senior Director Data Science & Software Engineering, and Silke Moser, GIM Corporate Director, together with six researchers from the Institute for Medical Biometry and Epidemiology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, have published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

The paper examines the effects of the contact restrictions adopted in Germany at the beginning of the corona pandemic between March and May 2020 and relates the results to patterns of infection with the virus.

For the investigation with the GIM Geolocation Tracking Tool "GIM Traces", the daily average movement habits of 2,014 representatively selected people between 16 and 89 years were evaluated. It was found that the daily distances covered by the people  decreased significantly after the contact restrictions were imposed, but increased again slightly from the beginning of April.

The contact restrictions in March 2020 were followed by a shorter distance travelled comparing the days before, as the graph in the paper shows. graph: Bönisch et al. 2020 in front. Public 8/2020. 

The R-value, which indicates the reproduction rate of the virus and tells how many people an infected person also infects on average, remained constant from the beginning of April until the end of the observation period.

The Open-Access published paper can be read and downloaded here free of charge. For questions and feedback you can contact Dr. Sebastian Bönisch and Silke Moser by e-mail.


Bibliographical data: Bönisch S, Wegscheider K, Krause L, Sehner S, Wiegel S, Zapf A, Moser S and Becher H (2020) Effects of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Related Contact Restrictions in Germany, March to May 2020, on the Mobility and Relation to Infection Patterns. Front. Public Health 8:568287. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.568287.

Contact:
 

For further information, please contact:
Dr. Sebastian Bönisch
s.boenisch@g-i-m.com

Contact:
 

For further information, please contact:
Silke Moser
s.moser@g-i-m.com