Google mobile data for our movements in April indicate public’s growing complacency

GLOBAL internet giant Google has issued its April report analysing our movements based on the location history of our mobile phones – and it shows that there’s been a significant increase in our movements over March even though strict lockdown restrictions initiated in mid March remained in force throughout the entire month.

The figures for April show that in Cork there was a 25% increase in our movement to shops during the month as opposed to figures for March while there was also a 6% increase of movement to shopping centres, restaurants and cinemas – even though these premises were closed.

The Google figures for March and April are set against the baseline of the first five weeks of the year – from January 1 to February 3. The data is derived from the phones of mobile user who have their location history turned on.

The trends illustrated in the figures for Cork are reflected all over Ireland and are also clear from the overall figures for the country and add to anecdotal and other evidence which contributed to the decision not to ease lockdown restrictions on May 4 as had been envisaged.

According to the figures for Cork, travel to and from grocery stores and pharmacies was down 15% in April on the January baseline – but that represented an increase of 25% on the figures for March in the same category.

The same data set showed travel to and from retail or recreation facilities such as restaurants, cafes, cinemas was down 81% in March on the January figures – but the statistics for April were down 75%. This represents a 6% increase in April on the March figures. This is despite that premises in this category were closed due to the restrictions.

The flipside of that coin is represented by the category which shows how close to home we’ve been during the month. The data also illustrated that we were staying close to home during April. While the figures for March showed an increase of 19% over the January baseline while, in April, this figure was up to 27%.

Another interesting category was the workplace. On March 12 when it was suggested that everybody who could work from home should do so, there was a sharp decrease in movements around the workplace. This trend continued during April. While the overall Cork figure for March showed that there had been a 51% decrease in workplace movement when compared to the January baseline, this figure showed a 63% decrease in April.

More people visited parks during April than January – the figures show that such movement was up by 10% - and this figure was a massive 64% increase on the March figure.

The reluctance of people to use public transport during this period increased during April. While there had been a 60% decrease in March as opposed to the January figures, the decrease was sharper at 73% in April, probably because the restrictions included the entire month.

It is likely these figures will play a significant role in the reasoning of NPHET, the National Public Health Emergency Team, when it meets on Friday to consider whether or not to ease the current restrictions on movement on Monday, May 18.