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Via New York Post
Some Americans could be suffering from “quarantine fatigue” and leaving home to go out more frequently, according to a new report.
A study by the Maryland Transportation Institute at the University of Maryland showed a subtle shift toward people making more outdoor trips – ones expected to rise with some states starting to reopen, according to The Washington Post.
The study tracks more than 100 million people monthly using “privacy-protected data from mobile devices.”
The study had noted six weeks of the staying-home percentage increasing or holding steady – until April 17, when the numbers staying home dropped from 33 percent to 31 percent, the report says.
Although a small change, it is statistically significant because the sample size is so large, lead researcher Lei Zhang told The Washington Post.
“We saw something we hoped wasn’t happening, but it’s there,” Zhang told the paper. “It seems collectively we’re getting a little tired. It looks like people are loosening up on their own to travel more.”
Dr. Wilbur Chen, an associate professor at the university’s School of Medicine, told the paper that it is too soon to know whether the findings are the start of an ongoing trend or just a one-week blip.
Researchers also won’t know for weeks whether the change has any impact on the contagion spreading, he said.
“If people are out and about, there’s more risk of transmission, and when there’s transmission, you have more cases of hospitalizations and deaths,” Chen told the paper.
