Since the primary mode of respiratory virus transmission is person-to-person interaction, we are required to reconsider physical interaction patterns to mitigate the number of people infected with COVID-19. While research has shown that non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) had an evident impact on national mobility patterns, we investigate the relative regional mobility behaviour to assess the effect of human movement on the spread of COVID-19. In particular, we explore the impact of human mobility and social connectivity derived from Facebook activities on the weekly rate of new infections in Germany between March 3rd and June 22nd, 2020. Our results confirm that reduced social activity lowers the infection rate, accounting for regional and temporal patterns. The extent of social distancing, quantified by the percentage of people staying put within a federal administrative district, has an overall negative effect on the incidence of infections. Additionally, our results show spatial infection patterns based on geographic as well as social distances.

翻译：由于呼吸道病毒传播的主要模式是人与人之间的互动,我们有必要重新考虑身体互动模式,以减少感染COVID-19的人数。虽然研究显示,非药物干预对国家流动模式有明显影响,但我们调查相对的区域流动性行为,以评估人类流动对COVID-19传播的影响。特别是,我们探讨了来自脸书活动的人的流动和社会连接对2020年3月3日至6月22日德国每周新感染率的影响。我们的结果证实,社会活动减少降低了感染率,考虑到地区和时间模式。用留在联邦行政辖区内的人的百分比来衡量,社会不和程度对感染发生率产生了总体的负面影响。此外,我们的结果显示,基于地理和社会距离的空间感染模式。