Report shows impact of Covid-19 measures
WEB giant Google has released a report showing how physical distancing measures have impacted the movement of people in the Garden County.
The Community Mobility Report gives a glimpse at how measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 affected the number of visits and length of time spent at different places over the month of March compared to a median value from the fiveweek period between January and February.
The report provides an overview of the impact of Covid-19 on visits to categories of places including retail and recreation, grocery and pharmacy, parks, public transport hubs, workplace and residential.
The report shows a downward trend in the mobility of people in the county in most of the broad categories. However, the data also identified a spike in visits to places including public parks, outdoor spaces, food shops and pharmacies in Wicklow in mid-March.
The company said it developed the report using ‘aggregated, anonymized sets of data from users who have turned on the Location History setting, which is off by default’.
In the Retail and Recreation category, the report records a downward trend of 89 per cent over the month of March (to March 29), compared against a median value used as a baseline in the analysis. This category includes museums, libraries and other cultural institutions which closed their doors on March 13 following an order from Government. It also includes restaurants, shopping centres and cinemas, many of which have closed their doors temporarily due to Covid-19.
The trend for visits to grocery and pharmacy increased by around 40 per cent above the median value for the previous six weeks in mid-March, suggesting that some shoppers in Wicklow were making additional visits to supermarkets or pharmacies and spending longer periods of time there. The trend subsequently reversed to 40 per cent below the median value by March 29.
The report also shows an increase in visits to Wicklow’s parks and green spaces in midMarch of around 90 per cent above the median value in the previous six weeks. The trend suggests that Wicklow’s outdoor spaces were popular with visitors during the month. However, the trend then moves in the opposite direction in late March, falling to 79 per cent below the median value by March 29, after measures to limit non-essential travel and restrict exercise to 2km outside home were introduced.
The analysis indicates a fall of 76 per cent in visits to public transport hubs in County Wicklow and visits to workplaces are down by over half, 53 per cent, to the end of March.
The report for Wicklow does not include a trend for time spent at home, as Google said it did not have sufficient data to report a in this category.
The national trends indicated a fall of 83 per cent in visits to places including restaurants, shops, museums, libraries and cinemas, compared to data collected in January and February. Downward trends were also noted in the number of visits to parks and other public spaces, following a rise in mid-March. Visits to public transport hubs such as train and bus stations also fell. Nationally, the trend for time spent at home rose by 20 per cent.
Google said that no personally identifiable information, such as an individual’s location, contacts or movements, would become available as a result of the release of the mobility report. People can turn off location history by logging into their Google account.