Intra-urban inequalities and Covid-19: an analysis of social isolation in the city of Porto Alegre

Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed territorial inequalities that were already present in Brazilian cities. One way in which these inequalities were expressed was the possibility of staying at home as a form of prevention. Analyzing a social isolation index based on cell phone location data, this paper shows that isolation in the city of Porto Alegre did not happen homogeneously in the territory. Factors such as occupation, income and the HDI for each region of the city are related to the different isolation rates that were found and, consequently, help us to understand the different degrees of exposure to the virus.

摘要：新冠疫情（COVID-19）大流行暴露了巴西城市中本已存在的地域不平等问题。此类不平等的表现形式之一，便是居民作为防疫手段选择居家的可能性存在差异。本研究基于手机定位数据构建社交隔离指数并展开分析，结果显示阿雷格里港市（Porto Alegre）的社交隔离在市域范围内并非均匀分布。城市各区域的职业、收入及人类发展指数（Human Development Index, HDI）等因素，与观测到的差异化隔离率密切相关，进而帮助我们理解不同区域的病毒暴露风险差异。