Impact of close interpersonal contact on COVID-19 incidence: evidence from one year of mobile device data

Crawford, Forrest W.; Jones, Sydney A.; Cartter, Matthew; Dean, Samantha G.; Warren, Joshua L.; Li, Zehang Richard; Barbieri, Jacqueline; Campbell, Jared; Kenney, Patrick; Valleau, Thomas; Morozova, Olga

Close contact between people is the primary route for transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We sought to quantify interpersonal contact at the population-level by using anonymized mobile device geolocation data. We computed the frequency of contact (within six feet) between people in Connecticut during February 2020 – January 2021. Then we aggregated counts of contact events by area of residence to obtain an estimate of the total intensity of interpersonal contact experienced by residents of each town for each day. When incorporated into a susceptible-exposed-infective-removed (SEIR) model of COVID-19 transmission, the contact rate accurately predicted COVID-19 cases in Connecticut towns during the timespan. The pattern of contact rate in Connecticut explains the large initial wave of infections during March–April, the subsequent drop in cases during June–August, local outbreaks during August–September, broad statewide resurgence during September–December, and decline in January 2021. Contact rate data can help guide public health messaging campaigns to encourage social distancing and in the allocation of testing resources to detect or prevent emerging local outbreaks more quickly than traditional case investigation.