Lockdown effectiveness

This is just a spontaneous note about a fantastic resource that I just got to know, even though it is available for some time now on the web. Sorry, if I bore you with “old news”.

Google has published free data that track the change in public activity (by tracking the change in movements in mobile phones and the usage of Google maps) in 131 countries around the world. The data is available for free here.

Take a look at the differences between the United States, the UK and Germany in activity in retail spaces and recreational areas. The decline in Germany is about 20 percentage point stronger than in the United States and in the UK it is even 40 percentage points. Retail stores and recreational areas are hot spots fro Covid transmission, so you can imagine how beneficial an effective shutdown of these areas is to get the pandemic under control.

Decline in mobility around retail stores and recreational facilities

Source: Google.

And here is the same comparison for workplaces. Germany is on par with the United States, but the UK has shut down workplace movements more effectively.

Decline in mobility around workplaces

Source: Google.

PS: And while you admire this data, think about what it means that Google is able to track these movements without us knowing…