RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Without ever reaching the 70 percent rate considered ideal by health authorities, social isolation in Brazil amid the novel coronavirus pandemic reached its highest rate in April, at the very beginning of the measure, with 46.1 percent of Brazilians isolating, and since then it has retreated every month until reaching 37.5 percent in September, the lowest rate so far.
The figures were collected by Inloco, a geolocation platform that collects information from a base of 60 million cell phones, and represent the country’s progress as business and social activities gradually resume in all states.
According to the data, in May, the isolation rate in the country retreated slightly, to 44.2 percent, and then experienced its sharpest drop to date, to 40.6 percent in June. In July and August, the rate remained stable at 39.2 percent and 39 percent, respectively.
The states with the highest average rate of isolation between April 1st and September 22nd are Acre (44.8 percent), Amapá (44.3 percent), Amazonas (43.7 percent), Ceará (43.5 percent) and Rio de Janeiro (43.1 percent). The states presenting the lowest average, according to Inloco, are the Federal District (35 percent), Tocantins (37.2 percent), Goiás (38.1 percent), Minas Gerais (39.4 percent) and Mato Grosso do Sul (39.3 percent).
Between April, the month with the highest national average isolation rate, and September to date, the states which showed the greatest reductions in isolation were Amazonas (-14,1 percentage points), Rio de Janeiro (-11,9 p.p.), Pernambuco (-11,5 p.p.), São Paulo (-11 p.p.), and Paraná (-10,2 p.p.).
The states with the lowest variations in relation to April were Tocantins (-4,8 p.p.), Mato Grosso (-5,6 p.p.), Sergipe (-6,4 p.p.), Mato Grosso do Sul (-6,5 p.p.), and Piauí (-6,9 p.p.).
Source: Veja