The social divide of social distancing: Shelter-in-place behavior in Santiago during the Covid-19 pandemic

Voluntary shelter-in-place directives and lockdowns are the main nonpharmaceutical interventions that governments around the globe have used to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. In this paper, we study the impact of such interventions in the capital of a developing country, Santiago, Chile, that exhibits large socioeconomic inequality. A distinctive feature of our study is that we use granular geolocated mobile phone data to construct mobility measures that capture (1) shelter-in-place behavior and (2) trips within the city to destinations with potentially different risk profiles. Using panel data linear regression models, we first show that the impact of social distancing measures and lockdowns on mobility is highly heterogeneous and dependent on socioeconomic levels. More specifically, our estimates indicate that, although zones of high socioeconomic levels can exhibit reductions in mobility of around 50%-90% depending on the specific mobility metric used, these reductions are only 20%-50% for lower income communities. The large reductions in higher income communities are significantly driven by voluntary shelter-in-place behavior. Second, also using panel data methods, we show that our mobility measures are important predictors of infections: roughly, a 10% increase in mobility correlates with a 5% increase in the rate of infection. Our results suggest that mobility is an important factor explaining differences in infection rates between high- and low-incomes areas within the city. Further, they confirm the challenges of reducing mobility in lower income communities, where people generate their income from their daily work. To be effective, shelter-in-place restrictions in municipalities of low socioeconomic levels may need to be complemented by other supporting measures that enable their inhabitants to increase compliance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Analytics Saves Lives During the COVID-19 Crisis in Chile

During the COVID-19 crisis, the Chilean Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Sciences, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation partnered with the Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI) and the telecommunications company ENTEL, to develop innovative methodologies and tools that placed operations research (OR) and analytics at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic. These innovations have been used in key decision aspects that helped shape a comprehensive strategy against the virus, including tools that (1) provided data on the actual effects of lockdowns in different municipalities and over time;(2) helped allocate limited intensive care unit (ICU) capacity;(3) significantly increased the testing capacity and provided on-the-ground strategies for active screening of asymptomatic cases;and (4) implemented a nationwide serology surveillance program that significantly influenced Chile's decisions regarding vaccine booster doses and that also provided information of global relevance. Significant challenges during the execution of the project included the coordination of large teams of engineers, data scientists, and healthcare professionals in the field;the effective communication of information to the population;and the handling and use of sensitive data. The initiatives generated significant press coverage and, by providing scientific evidence supporting the decision making behind the Chilean strategy to address the pandemic, they helped provide transparency and objectivity to decision makers and the general population. According to highly conservative estimates, the number of lives saved by all the initiatives combined is close to 3,000, equivalent to more than 5% of the total death toll in Chile associated with the pandemic until January 2022. The saved resources associated with testing, ICU beds, and working days amount to more than 300 million USD.