Correlation of public mobility and Covid-19 incidence in Indonesia during six phases of restriction policy implementation

Abstract

Public mobility is considered one of the factors thought to impact the transmission of SARS-CoV2. The Indonesian government has imposed six mobility restriction policies since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to cope this situation, however there has been no comprehensive evaluation of this program. This study aimed to examine the correlation between mobility and the incidence of COVID-19 during the implementation of this policy in Indonesia. Secondary data on public mobility, acquired through the Google Community Mobility Reports, and data on COVID-19 new cases, recorded on the COVID Task Force website, were utilized from 2 March 2020 to 20 July 2021.The analysis in this study was carried out using the Pearson correlation test with an alternative Spearman correlation test. The result reported a positive correlation between COVID-19 cases and mobility in certain places, such as in Grocery Store and Transit Station (r = 0.75; p-value <0.001; r = 0.62 p-value <0.001) while there was negative correlation in residential area (r= - 0.276 p-value < 0.001). Public mobility is found to be correlated with an increase in COVID-19 cases during the six phases of restriction policy implementation. In conclusion, regulating public mobility is important to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission.