Illinois and social distancing: Some counties are doing better than others, data show

As the coronavirus continues to spread, Illinois is doing a pretty good job social distancing to flatten the curve, data show.

Human mobility company Unacast uses anonymous data from cellphones to determine the average distance people are traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the average distance they traveled prior to the outbreak. The data is entered into a color-coded map that is updated regularly.

Illinois earned a B ranking as of Tuesday morning, with data current through March 26. The United States as a whole garnered an A.

From Feb. 24 to March 12, Illinois saw little change in how often people were traveling in the state, data show. On some occasions, movement increased slightly, with March 10 seeing a 4% jump in average distance traveled. At that point, Illinois had 12 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to Unacast.

As confirmed cases continued to accumulate, travel decreased steadily, hitting a 48% decrease in travel distance on March 22. By then, Illinois had 1,049 confirmed cases of coronavirus, data show.

On March 24, travel in Illinois saw only 23% less travel than usual before falling, again, to 32% less travel on March 26.

Of course, some counties are doing better than others. Scott, DuPage, Lake, Calhoun and Kane counties rank best in the state, all with A ratings, based on March 26 data.

Clark, Effingham, Cumberland, Union and Massac counties ranked worst, all scoring Fs that Thursday.

Cook County, home to Chicago, and St. Clair County, home to Belleville, both earned a B rating based on travel through March 26, data show.

Illinois has 5,057 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 73 deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to the state. More than 30,000 have been tested.