Data: Fewer residents travel on Christmas
Humboldt County residents left their homes and traveled less on Christmas than on Thanksgiving, according to data from major tech companies.
The percentage of people staying at their homes for a continuous 24-hour period in Humboldt County was 32.96% on Thanksgiving and 35.76% on Christmas, according to Facebook data. Movement on Christmas was 49.82% below a baseline established at the end of February 2019 and was 40.9% below that baseline on Thanksgiving, according to the Facebook data.
According to Apple data, driving in Humboldt County was 47.7% below a baseline established in February 2019 on Christmas compared to 25.7% below that baseline on Thanksgiving.
Google showed a roughly equivalent number of people (25%) stayed home on Christmas and Thanksgiving, and abstained from going to work (80%) compared to a baseline established in January 2019.
There were significantly fewer people who spent time at retail and recreation locations, grocery stores and pharmacies, and parks on Christmas compared to Thanksgiving, according to the Google data.
Time spent at retail and recreation locations was down 83% on Christmas compared to about 70% on Thanksgiving, according to the Google data. It was down 62% at grocery stores and pharmacies on Christmas compared to about 30% on Thanksgiving, and time spent at parks was down 47% on Christmas and up about 25% on Thanksgiving.
The data doesn’t account for all of the county’s residents and is limited to the users of Google, Apple and Facebook who have their location services turned on.
Smart thermometer company Kinsa, which forecasts the spread of COVID-19 and
the flu based on the data collected from its thermometer users, predicts the risk level for contracting COVID-19 is falling in Humboldt County, as well as surrounding counties such as Trinity, Mendocino and Del Norte counties.
The state Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 model also shows the county’s COVID-19 reproduction number, which represents how many people an infected person will go onto infect, dropped below one in mid-December, indicating the illness is not spreading beyond infected individuals.