Percent of calls about COVID-19 higher in states relying on 2-1-1

States that are partnering with 2-1-1s in their COVID response are generating more COVID requests to 2-1-1. We classified 2-1-1s in 31 states based on whether each state designated 2-1-1 as the primary source for COVID information (9 states), a part of the state’s response to the pandemic (6 states), or neither (16 states). The charts below show requests for COVID-19 information each day during the pandemic as a proportion of all requests received. In states that partnered with 2-1-1, a larger proportion of requests were COVID-related. This was true at virtually all points in the first 100+ days of the pandemic. Requests for COVID-19 information accounted for 19% of all requests during the pandemic in states where 2-1-1 was a primary source, 15% of all requests in states where 2-1-1 was part of the response, and 9% of all requests in states that did not link residents to 2-1-1s. Prior research has demonstrated a similar effect of partnering with 2-1-1 partnerships on financial assistance requests during the 2008 housing mortgage crisis. The charts below show the number and proportion of average daily requests for COVID-19 information from March 12 to June 26, 2020. Mouse over each bar to see these values. These results confirm that stronger partnerships with 2-1-1s generate more information seeking within communities. States where 2-1-1 was a primary source of COVID information include CT, DE, IA, ME, NC, NJ, VA, WI and WY. States where 2-1-1 was part of the response include CA, HI, IN, MA, MD and MI. States that did not link residents to 2-1-1 include AL, AR, FL, IL, KS, KY, MN, MO, NE, NV, NY, OH, PA, SC, SD and TN. These classifications were based upon web searches conducted by Focus-19 team members between April and June, 2020. We take responsibility for any errors leading to misclassification.

Contributors: Cindy Charles, Rachel Garg, Balaji Golla, Irum Javed, Matthew Kreuter, Jennifer Wolff