Cell phone data has revealed more Americans are on the move again as parts of the country relax social distancing measures.

A majority of Americans have been under partial or full stay-at-home orders for the last month while the coronavirus pandemic impacted the healthcare system and the US economy.

Travel plummeted starting as early as March and people in major cities avoided mass transit to prevent spreading the novel virus.

Apple's Mobility Trends Report, which tracked movement around the world since the early stages of Covid-19 on 13 January, revealed Americans are walking and driving more in recent days. In a chart tracking movement since January, it showed a slight uptake in walking and driving while using public transport has remained consistently low since mid-March.

While the slight uptake was charted only this past week, it could show how people in the US are starting to relax social distancing measures more as areas experience a decline in hospitalisation and death rates from the coronavirus.

Public transport was down in the US by 75 per cent, compared to the January and February baseline, while driving was just down 27 per cent and walking was down 40 per cent, a slight increase from earlier in April. New York City, the epicentre for the virus, had an 86 per cent decrease in transit, 65 per cent decrease in walking, and 42 per cent decrease in driving.

The beginning of an uptake in travel could continue as multiple states - including Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, and South Carolina - work to reopen parts of their economies.

Apple compiled the data using the Apple Maps' tool to measure how people travel when carrying their cell phone. The tech giant assured users the data was anonymous and aggregated to uphold privacy.

Apple's Mobility Trends Report shows Americans could be relaxing stay-at-home measures by travelling more in recent days (Apple)

"Maps does not associate mobility data with a user's Apple ID, and Apple does not keep a history of where a user has been. Using aggregated data collected from Apple Maps, the new website indicates mobility trends for major cities and 63 countries or regions," Apple wrote in a statement.

Researchers in Maryland also found Americans were starting to relax social distancing measures and travelling more, according to a report in The Washington Post.

"We saw something we hoped wasn't happening, but it's there," Lei Zhang, lead researcher and director of the Maryland Transportation Institute at the University of Maryland, told the newspaper. "It seems collectively we're getting a little tired. It looks like people are loosening up on their own to travel more."

Loading....

The researchers also studied cell phone data and found a national average of people staying home, meaning they didn't move from one location all day, declined from 33 per cent 31 per cent on 17 April.

Public health experts have called this decline in Americans staying at home "quarantine fatigue".

But Dr Deborah Birx, Donald Trump's coronavirus response coordinator, said social distancing measures could last into the summer.