Google has prepared Coronavirus (COVID-19) Community Mobility Reports to help you and public health officials understand responses to social distancing guidance. The reports provide insights into what has changed in response to work from home, shelter in place, and other policies aimed at flattening the curve of this pandemic. The reports use location data to compare movement trends over time by geography, across different high-level categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential.
While Google provides data separated by region, we have put the numbers together so that you can compare how each country has responded to the social distancing measure for containing the spread of COVID-19. Note that this report shouldn’t be used for medical diagnostic, prognostic, or treatment purposes. It also isn’t intended to be used for guidance on personal travel plans.
Google has divided the data into six categories so you can see the percent increase and decrease compared to the baseline for each. Keep in mind that location data numbers were collected as of 29 March 2020, so these are expected to evolve over time. We have provided data from the top 30 countries that have the highest number of COVID-19 cases.
1. Retail and Recreation
Retail and Recreation shows mobility trends for places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters. The retail and recreation locations in Italy, Spain, France, Austria, and UK have seen the most reduction in number of visits compared to the baseline. It is good to see that all of the countries have seen a reduction from the baseline.
2. Grocery & Pharmacy
Grocery & Pharmacy shows mobility trends for places like grocery markets, food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty food shops, drug stores, and pharmacies. The Grocery and Pharmacy locations in Italy, Spain, France, Ecuador, and India have seen the most reduction in number of visits compared to the baseline. In South Korea, there has been an increase in number of visits to Grocery and Pharmacy stores and remaining countries have seen a reduction from the baseline.
3. Transit
Transit stations shows mobility trends for places like public transport hubs such as subway, bus, and train stations. The Transit stations in Spain, Italy, France, Malaysia, and Philippines have seen the most reduction in number of visits compared to the baseline. It is good to see that all of the countries have seen a reduction from the baseline when it comes to usage of Transit stations.
4. Parks
Parks data show mobility trends for places like national parks, public beaches, marinas, dog parks, plazas, and public gardens. The Parks in Italy, Spain, France, Ecuador, and Portugal have seen the most reduction in number of visits compared to the baseline. However, it is concerning to see that there is an increase in the number of visits to parks in South Korea, Sweden, and Denmark. We have seen increase in COVID-19 numbers in Italy when the citizens failed to stay home and decided to visits public parks instead. Given the relatively low reduction in visits to Parks in most counties, it seems like this is a common theme across all counties where people are going to parks to spend time instead of staying home.
5. Workplaces
Workplaces show mobility trends for places of work. The workplaces in Spain, Italy, Ecuador, Israel and France have seen the most reduction compared to the baseline. On the other hand, workers in Japan, South Korea, and Sweden have continued to go to work compared to all other counties.
6. Residential
Residential shows mobility trends for places of residence. The residents in Malaysia, Israel, Ecuador, Philippines, and Italy have seen the most increase compared to the base line and other countries. In alignment with workplace data, the residents in Japan, South Korea, and Sweden have shown least increase as people have been going to work compared to all other counties.
Source: Google
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