Google presents mobility reports to show effects of COVID-19 lockdown

With most of the countries complying with lockdown and social distancing amid COVID-19 outbreak. Google has been collecting user location data from the users and has been creating reports to help public health officials understand the impact of lockdown on public movements.

Google has announced the release of COVID-19 Mobility Reports. The report uses data from people who have opted in to get their location data stored with Google. These reports then process that data and present data which shows how many degrees people adhere to government lockdown.

Google said in a blogpost:

As global communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing emphasis on public health strategies, like social distancing measures, to slow the rate of transmission. In Google Maps, we use aggregated, anonymized data showing how busy certain types of places are — helping identify when a local business tends to be the most crowded. We have heard from public health officials that this same type of aggregated, anonymized data could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19.

The report provides data in movement patterns for different categories namely:

• Retail and recreation, covering visits to restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, movie theaters, and similar locations.
• Grocery and pharmacy, covering supermarkets, food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty food shops, and drug stores.
• Parks, covering public beaches, marinas, dog parks, plazas, and other public spaces.
• Transit stations, covering subway stops and bus and train stations.
• Workplaces, covering offices.
• Residences, covering people’s homes.

You can check the report for your country by visiting the reports.

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