COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports Research Articles

Evaluating the Effectiveness of School Closure in COVID-19-Related Syndromes From Community-Based Syndromic Surveillance: Longitudinal Observational Study.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a school closure policy was adopted to prevent cluster transmission in schools and subsequent household transmission. However, the effectiveness of school closure is not consistent in studies conducted in different countries. This study aimed to explore the association between school closure and the daily standardized incidence of COVID-19-related syndromes in an outpatient syndromic surveillance system. We calculated the incidence of COVID-19-related syndromes derived from a community-based syndromic surveillance system between the first week of January and the second or fourth weeks after school closure in 2021 and 2022 in Taipei City, Taiwan. The effect of school closure on the standardized incidence of COVID-19-related syndromes was evaluated by interrupted time series analysis using an autoregressive integrated moving average with a distributed lag function. The exogenous variables were changes in human mobility measured by Google COVID-19 community mobility reports. Furthermore, the models quantified the influence of different age groups and the hierarchy of medical facilities, such as clinics or community hospitals. School closure was only negatively and significantly associated with the overall standardized incidence of COVID-19-related syndromes in 2021 for 2 weeks after the intervention (coefficient -1.24, 95% CI -2.40 to -0.08). However, in different age groups, school closure had a significantly negative association with the standardized incidence among people aged 13-18 years and ≥65 years for 2 weeks after the intervention in clinics in 2021. In community hospitals, school closure was significantly positively associated with the standardized incidence among people aged 19-24 years in 2021. In 2022, 2 weeks after the intervention, school closure had a significantly negative association with the standardized incidence among people aged 0-6, 7-12, and 19-24 years in community hospitals and aged >45 years in clinics. Furthermore, the standardized incidence was positively associated with movement change toward grocery and pharmacy stores in all age groups in 2022. In addition, movement changes toward residences were significantly positively associated with the standardized incidence among all age groups. Overall, school closure effectively suppresses COVID-19-related syndromes in students owing to the reduction of physical contact. In addition, school closure has a spillover effect on elderly people who stay at home.

Selling hope versus hate: the impact of partisan social media messaging on social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study aims to examine the role of hope and hate in political leaders’ messages in influencing liberals versus conservatives’ social-distancing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the increasing political partisanship across the world today, using the appropriate message framing has important implications for social and public policy.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use two Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods – a pretrained package (HateSonar) and a classifier built to implement our supervised neural network-based model architecture using RoBERTa – to analyze 61,466 tweets by each US state’s governor and two senators with the goal of examining the association between message factors invoking hate and hope and increased or decreased social distancing from March to May 2020. The authors examine individuals’ social-distancing behaviors (the amount of nonessential driving undertaken) using data from 3,047 US counties between March 13 and May 31, 2020, as reported by Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports and the New York Times repository of COVID-19 data.FindingsThe results show that for conservative state leaders, the use of hate increases nonessential driving of state residents. However, when these leaders use hope in their speech, nonessential driving of state residents decreases. For liberal state leaders, the use of hate displays a directionally different result as compared to their conservative counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsAmid the emergence of new analytic techniques and novel data sources, the findings demonstrate that the use of global positioning systems data and social media analysis can provide valuable and precise insights into individual behavior. They also contribute to the literature on political ideology and emotion by demonstrating the use of specific emotion appeals in targeting specific consumer segments based on their political ideology.Practical implicationsThe findings have significant implications for policymakers and public health officials regarding the importance of considering partisanship when developing and implementing public health policies. As partisanship continues to increase, applying the appropriate emotion appeal in messages will become increasingly crucial. The findings can help marketers and policymakers develop more effective social marketing campaigns by tailoring specific appeals given the political identity of the consumer.Originality/valueUsing Neural NLP methods, this study identifies the specific factors linking social media messaging from political leaders and increased compliance with health directives in a partisan population.

Greenspace use during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal population mobility study in the United Kingdom

BackgroundThe coronavirus pandemic greatly disrupted the lives of people. Restrictions introduced worldwide to limit the spread of infection included stay-at-home orders, closure of venues, restrictions to travel and limits to social contacts. During this time, parks and outdoor greenspaces gained prominent attention as alternative location for respite. Population mobility data offers a unique opportunity to understand the impact of the pandemic on outdoor behaviour. We examine the role of the restrictions on park use throughout the full span of the pandemic while controlling for weather and region. MethodsThis study provides a longitudinal population analysis of park visitation using Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports data in the UK. Daily park visitation was plotted and ANOVA analyses tested season and year effects in visitation. Then, regressions examined park visitation beyond weather (temperature and rain), according to COVID-19 restrictions, while controlling for region specificities through unit fixed effect models. ResultsTime series and ANOVA analyses documented the significant decrease in park visitation in the spring of 2020, the seasonal pattern in visitation, and an overall sustained and elevated use over nearly three years. Regressions confirmed park visitation increased significantly when temperature was greater and when it rained less. More visitation was also seen when there were fewer COVID-19 cases and when the stringency level of restrictions was lower. Of special interest, a significant interaction effect was found between temperature and stringency, with stringency significantly supressing the effect of higher temperature on visitation. ConclusionsCOVID-19 restrictions negatively impacted park visitation on warm days. Given the general health, social, and wellbeing benefits of greenspace use, one should consider the collateral negative impact of restrictions on park visitation. When social distancing of contacts is required, the few remaining locations where it can safely occur should instead be promoted.

Prolonged school closure during the pandemic time in successive waves of COVID-19- vulnerability of children to sexual abuses – A case study in Tamil Nadu, India

ObjectivesThe Tamil Nadu government mandated several stay-at-home orders, with restrictions of varying intensities, to contain the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research investigates how such orders impacted child sexual abuse (CSA) by using counterfactual prediction to compare CSA statistics with those of other crimes. After adjusting for mobility, we investigate the relationship between situational factors and recorded levels of cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The situational factors include the victims’ living environment, their access to relief agencies, and the competence and responsiveness of the police. MethodsWe adopt an auto-regressive neural network method to make a counterfactual forecast of CSA cases that represents a scenario without stay-at-home orders, relying on the eight-year daily count data of POCSO cases in Tamil Nadu. Using the insights from Google's COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, we measure changes in mobility across various community spaces during the various phases of stay-at-home orders in both waves in 2020 and 2021. ResultsThe steep falls in POCSO cases during strict stay-at-home periods, compared with the counterfactual estimates, were −72% (Cliff's delta −0.99) and −36% (Cliff's delta −0.65) during the first and second waves, respectively. However, in the post-lockdown phases, there were sharp increases of 68% (Cliff's delta 0.65) and 36% (Cliff's delta 0.56) in CSA cases during the first and second waves, with concomitantly quicker reporting of case registration. ConclusionsConsidering that the median delay in filing CSA complaints was above 30 days in the mild and post-intervention periods, the upsurge of cases in the more relaxed phases indicates increased occurrences of CSA during strict lockdowns. Overall, higher victimization numbers were observed during the prolonged lockdown-induced school closures. Our findings highlight the time gap between the incidents and their registration during the strict lockdown phases.

Digital Literacy and Awareness of User Location Privacy: What People in Turkey Know About Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports?

At the outbreak of the COVID-19, governments, health organizations and large technology companies were not prepared for the measures to be taken against the disease. Contact tracking was widely carried out using location data to prevent the spread of COVID-19 with the use of technological tools, especially smartphones. In this epidemic, economic difficulties also emerged due to the lockdown imposed by the governments. For this reason, social distancing and contact tracing applications have become widespread in order to prevent the disease as soon as possible. Such strategies negatively affected individuals’ perceptions of privacy, because authorities gave priority to collecting data from individuals in order to prevent the epidemic. On the other hand, non-governmental organizations suggested that “privacy-first” and “decentralized” approaches should be preferred instead of “data-first” and “centralized” approaches. In this direction, Google and Apple companies have developed a decentralized common API to help fight the virus, which also complies with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. And in particular, Google has regularly shared Google Community Mobility Reports (GCMR) publicly by anonymizing the data it collects from Google Maps. Using these reports people and authorities can get movement data about different categories of places such as retail and recreation, supermarkets and pharmacies, parks, public transport, workplaces and residential.Our aim is to find out whether individuals in Turkey are aware that their location and movement data are being tracked by Google Maps and contact tracing apps for preventing the spread of COVID-19. We also examined their motivations for downloading location tracing apps and whether they have been taking necessary steps to protect their privacy. We investigated whether they had concerns about the possible future use of contact tracing data collected by the health authorities in Turkey and other institutions like Google. The scope of the study covers smartphone users. We collected data through an online survey using Google Forms. Our survey consists mostly of narrative questions, where we asked respondents to imagine various scenarios where app manufacturers, mobile phone operators/manufacturers, or the government were using some of their data to study or mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Then, between 12.15.2020/01.02.2021 we distributed the survey link to the participants through various social media networks. We reported the results of the data of 444 people collected anonymously by quantitative analysis methods. As a result of the study, it was determined that the digital literacy levels of the individuals are high due to their high education level. Despite this, it has been revealed that the participants do not read the terms and conditions offered in apps. Individuals who care about privacy expressed their willingness to share their data for the sake of public health. As an answer to the main question of our study, it was concluded that the participants’ knowledge of GCMR was insufficient. As a matter of fact, it was understood that individuals were indecisive and worried about the use of their data by the authorities in the future due to the uncertainty experienced during the pandemic period.

Mobility restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced outpatient HIV and syphilis testing in Brazil.

In the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, strategies adopted to reduce the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 relied on non-pharmacological interventions, including physical distancing. Mobility restrictions affected the availability and quality of care for many health conditions, including sexually transmitted infections. To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic mobility restriction on syphilis and HIV testing in outpatient settings. In this study, we collected the weekly number of syphilis and HIV tests performed in a referent laboratory in São Paulo, Brazil, as well as the percentage of positive tests between January 2019 and December 2021. We also retrieved data on retail and recreation mobility in São Paulo city using Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. We explored the association between populational mobility and the number of weekly tests and the association between the number of weekly tests and the percentage of positive results during the pandemic period. The analyses were conducted separately for syphilis and HIV tests. We found that mobility restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have been associated with a significant decrease in both syphilis and HIV tests performed in outpatient settings. We also observed that the number of tests performed was inversely associated with the percentage of positive results for syphilis; this association was also apparent for HIV tests in the first wave of the pandemic in the graphic analysis. Taken together, our findings suggest an indirect impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related mobility restrictions on the uptake of diagnostic tests for HIV and syphilis and the potential adoption of targeted-testing strategies. Understanding the extent and complexity of COVID-19 aftermaths on specific conditions and communities is essential to build strategies to mitigate the long-term consequences of COVID-19.

Human mobility increased with vaccine coverage and attenuated the protection of COVID-19 vaccination: A longitudinal study of 107 countries.

The World Health Organization has raised concerns that vaccinated people may reduce physical and social distancing more than necessary. With imperfect vaccine protection and the lifting of mobility restrictions, understanding how human mobility responded to vaccination and its potential consequence is critical. We estimated vaccination-induced mobility (VM) and examined whether it attenuates the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on controlling case growth. We collected a longitudinal data set of 107 countries between 15 February 2020 and 6 February 2022 from Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, Our World in Data, and World Development Indicators. We measured mobility in four categories of location: retail and recreational places, transit stations, grocery stores and pharmacies, and workplaces. We applied panel data models to address unobserved country characteristics and used Gelbach decomposition to evaluate the extent to which VM has offset vaccination effectiveness. Across locations, a 10-percentage-point (pp) increase in vaccine coverage was associated with a 1.4-4.3 pp increase in mobility (P < 0.001). VM was greater in lower-income countries (up to 7.9 pps; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 5.3 to 10.5, P < 0.001) and in earlier stages of vaccine rollouts (up to 19.2 pps; 95% CI = 15.1 to 23.2%, P < 0.001). VM decreased the effectiveness of vaccines in controlling case growth by 33.4% in retail and recreation places (P < 0.001), 26.4% in transit stations (P < 0.001), and 15.4% in grocery stores and pharmacies (P = 0.002). VM provides support for the Peltzman effect; it attenuates but does not completely counter vaccine effectiveness. Our study findings suggest strategies for mitigating the unintended consequences of VM, including reducing short-term mobility responses after vaccination, prioritizing mobility in grocery-type places and workplaces, and accelerating rollouts at earlier stages of vaccination, especially in lower-income countries.

Exploring the Role of Infodemics in People's Incompliance with Preventive Measures during the COVID-19 in Conflict Settings (Mixed Method Study).

The evolving availability of health information on social media, regardless of its credibility, raises several questions about its impact on our health decisions and social behaviors, especially during health crises and in conflict settings where compliance with preventive measures and health guidelines is already a challenge due to socioeconomic factors. For these reasons, we assessed compliance with preventive measures and investigated the role of infodemic in people's non-compliance with COVID-19 containment measures in Yemen. To this purpose and to triangulate our data collection, we executed a mixed method approach in which raw aggregated data were taken and analyzed from multiple sources (COVID-19 Government Response Tracker and Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports), then complemented and verified with In-depth interviews. Our results showed that the population in Yemen had relatively complied with the governmental containment measures at the beginning of the pandemic. However, containment measures were not supported by daily COVID-19 reports due to low transparency, which, together with misinformation and lack of access to reliable sources, has caused the population not to believe in COVID-19 and even practice social pressure on those who showed some compliance with the WHO guidelines. Those results indicate the importance of adopting an infodemic management approach in response to future outbreaks, particularly in conflict settings.

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on gendered research productivity and its correlates.

Female researchers may have experienced more difficulties than their male counterparts since the COVID-19 outbreak because of gendered housework and childcare. To test it, we constructed a unique dataset that connects 15,280,382 scholarly publications and their 11,828,866 authors retrieved from Microsoft Academic Graph data between 2016 and 2020 to various national characteristics from LinkedIn, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, and Covid-19 Community Mobility Reports from Google. Using the dataset, this study estimated how much the proportion of female authors in academic journals on a global scale changed in 2020 (net of recent yearly trends). We observed a decrease in research productivity for female researchers in 2020, mostly as first authors, followed by last author position. We also identified various factors that amplified the gender gap by dividing the authors' backgrounds into individual, organizational and national characteristics. Female researchers were more vulnerable when they were in their mid-career, affiliated to the least influential organizations, and more importantly from less gender-equal countries with higher mortality and restricted mobility as a result of COVID-19. Our findings suggest that female researchers were not necessarily excluded from but were marginalized in research since the COVID-19 outbreak and we discuss its policy implications.

Social capital as a containment factor of the COVID-19 pandemic

Effectiveness of the pandemic containment can depend upon both actions of governments and willingness of the population to follow the introduced rules, which is heavily dependable upon the social capital structure in society. This article analyzes relationship between various components of social capital and changes in mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article is based on data from the World Values Survey, Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, etc. The study hypotheses have been empirically tested on a sample of 61 countries, as well as subsamples of countries with high- and low-quality institutions. The results show that high levels of trust in the government, police and courts, as well as developed norms of cooperation in society (in particular, dislike of free riding), other things being equal, contribute to lower mobility during the pandemic. This effect is particularly pronounced in countries with high-quality institutions. A high level of generalized trust, on the contrary, is not associated with a lower mobility during the pandemic, which may limit its containment, especially in countries with low-quality institutions. The results obtained can be used for developing socio-economic policy aimed at containing the pandemic.

Investigating the effects of absolute humidity and movement on COVID-19 seasonality in the United States

Mounting evidence suggests the primary mode of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is aerosolized transmission from close contact with infected individuals. While transmission is a direct result of human encounters, falling humidity may enhance aerosolized transmission risks similar to other respiratory viruses (e.g., influenza). Using Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, we assessed the relative effects of absolute humidity and changes in individual movement patterns on daily cases while accounting for regional differences in climatological regimes. Our results indicate that increasing humidity was associated with declining cases in the spring and summer of 2020, while decreasing humidity and increase in residential mobility during winter months likely caused increases in COVID-19 cases. The effects of humidity were generally greater in regions with lower humidity levels. Given the possibility that COVID-19 will be endemic, understanding the behavioral and environmental drivers of COVID-19 seasonality in the United States will be paramount as policymakers, healthcare systems, and researchers forecast and plan accordingly.

Covid-19 Effect on Community Mobility and Stock Market of Malaysia

Physical distancing is believed to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus. With data provided by COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports from Google, this study examines the mobility patterns at different stages of Movement Control Order (MCO) and investigates whether lower mobility reduces the number of new cases, death cases, and recovery rate. This research also covers the time spent in places such as i) retail and recreation, ii) grocery and pharmacy, iii) parks, iv) transit stations, v) the workplace, and vi) residential areas. As each of these types of places has distinct epidemiological characteristics, they may spread transmission differently. This study also correlates the stock market with mobility patterns of Malaysians in order to evaluate the effectiveness of lockdowns on COVID-19 incidents and its impact on the stock market, in this case; Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI). Findings of this study highlight the effects of pandemic COVID-19 on stock market daily performance by utilizing prospect and uncertainty theory in predicting the short-term impacts of the epidemic. Keywords: COVID-19; Malaysia; MCO; mobility; KLCI

Insights into Controlling the Spread of COVID-19: A Study Inspired by Seven of the Earliest Vaccinated Countries.

Background The aim of the study is to derive deeper insights into the control of the spread of COVID-19 during the second half of 2021, from seven countries that are among the earliest to have accelerated the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines. Methodology. This study used data from the Global COVID-19 Index and Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. Data was extracted on the 5th of each month from July to December 2021. Seven countries were selected—United Kingdom, United States of America, Israel, Canada, France, Italy, and Austria. The sample comprised number of new cases, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths due to COVID-19, government stringency measures, partial and full vaccination coverage, and changes in human mobility. Principal component analysis was conducted, and the results were interpreted and visualized through 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional plots to reveal the systematic patterns of the data. Results The first three principal components captured around 77.3% of variance in the data. The first component was driven by the spread of COVID-19 (31.6%), the second by mobility activities (transit, retail, and recreational) (24.3%), whereas the third by vaccination coverage, workplace-related mobility, and government stringency measures (21.4%). Visualizations showed lower or moderate levels of severity in COVID-19 during this period for most countries. By contrast, the surge in the USA was more severe especially in September 2021. Human mobility activities peaked in September for most countries and then receded in the following months as more stringent government measures were imposed, and countries began to grapple with a surge in COVID-19 cases. Conclusion This study delineated the spread of COVID-19, human mobility patterns, widespread vaccination coverage, and government stringency measures on the overall control of COVID-19. While at least moderate levels of stringency measures are needed, high vaccine coverage is particularly important in curbing the spread of this disease.

The impact of state paid sick leave policies on weekday workplace mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic

ObjectivesThis study aimed to evaluate whether the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) modified the association between pre-existing state paid sick leave (PSL) and weekday workplace mobility between February 15 and July 7, 2020. Study designThis was a longitudinal, observational study. MethodsThe 50 US states and Washington, D.C., were divided into exposure groups based on the presence or absence of pre-existing state PSL policies. Derived from Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, the outcome was measured as the daily percent change in weekday workplace mobility. Mixed-effects, interrupted time series regression was performed to evaluate weekday workplace mobility after the implementation of the FFCRA on April 1, 2020. ResultsStates with pre-existing PSL policies exhibited a greater drop in mobility following the passage of the FFCRA (β = −8.86, 95% confidence interval: −11.6, −6.10, P < 001). This remained significant after adjusting for state-level health, economic, and sociodemographic indicators (β = −3.13, 95% confidence interval: −5.92, −0.34; P = .039). ConclusionsPre-existing PSL policies were associated with a significant decline in weekday workplace mobility after the FFCRA, which may have influenced local health outcomes. The presence of pre-existing state policies may differentially influence the impact of federal legislation enacted during emergencies.

HSD54 Adherence to Expert Recommendations: Evidence from Oral vs. Infusion Substitution during COVID-19

HSD54 Adherence to Expert Recommendations: Evidence from Oral vs. Infusion Substitution during COVID-19

Measuring the mobility impact on the COVID-19 pandemic.

This assessment aims at measuring the impact of different location mobility on the COVID-19 pandemic. Data over time and over the 27 Brazilian federations in 5 regions provided by Google's COVID-19 community mobility reports and classified by place categories (retail and recreation, grocery and pharmacy, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residences) are autoregressed on the COVID-19 incidence in Brazil using generalized linear regressions to measure the aggregate dynamic impact of mobility on each socioeconomic category. The work provides a novel multicriteria approach for selecting the most appropriate estimation model in the context of this application. Estimations for the time gap between contagion and data disclosure for public authorities' decision-making, estimations regarding the propagation rate, and the marginal mobility contribution for each place category are also provided. We report the pandemic evolution on the dimensions of cases and a geostatistical analysis evaluating the most critical cities in Brazil based on optimized hotspots with a brief discussion on the effects of population density and the carnival.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Diagnosis of Heart Disease in Latin America an INCAPS COVID Sub-analysis.

ResumoFundamentoA pandemia de COVID-19 interferiu na prestação de atendimento a doenças cardiovasculares na América Latina. No entanto, o efeito da pandemia nos volumes de procedimentos cardíacos diagnósticos ainda não foi quantificado.ObjetivoAvaliar (1) o impacto de COVID-19 nos volumes de diagnóstico cardíaco na América Latina e (2) determinar sua relação com a incidência de casos de COVID-19 e as medidas de distanciamento social.MétodosA International Atomic Energy Agency realizou uma pesquisa mundial avaliando mudanças nos volumes diagnósticos cardíacos decorrentes da COVID-19. Foram obtidos os volumes diagnósticos cardíacos dos locais participantes para março e abril de 2020 e comparados com março de 2019. Foram coletados dados de distanciamento social a partir dos Relatórios de mobilidade da comunidade de Google e a incidência de COVID-19 por país a partir de Our World in Data.ResultadosForam realizadas pesquisas em 194 centros que realizam procedimentos diagnósticos cardíacos, em 19 países da América Latina. Em comparação com o mês de março de 2019, os volumes dos procedimentos diagnósticos cardíacos diminuíram 36% em março de 2020 e 82% em abril de 2020.As maiores reduções ocorreram em relação aos testes de estresse ecocardiográfico (91%), testes ergométricos de esteira (88%) e escore de cálcio por tomografia computadorizada (87%), com pequenas variações entre as sub-regiões da América Latina. As mudanças em padrões de distanciamento social (p < 0,001) estavam mais fortemente associadas com a redução do volume do que a incidência de COVID-19 (p = 0,003).ConclusõesA COVID-19 foi associada a uma redução significativa de procedimentos diagnósticos cardíacos na América Latina, a qual foi mais relacionada ao distanciamento social do que ao aumento da incidência da COVID-19. São necessários melhor equilíbrio e timing de medidas de distanciamento social e planejamento para manter o acesso ao atendimento médico durante um surto pandêmico, especialmente em regiões com alta mortalidade cardiovascular.

Effects of Social Mobility and Stringency Measures on the COVID-19 Outcomes: Evidence From the United States.

This paper examines the effects of stringency measures (provided by the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker) and total time spent away from home (provided by the Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports) on the COVID-19 outcomes (measured by total COVID-19 cases and total deaths related to the COVID-19) in the United States. The paper focuses on the daily data from March 11, 2020 to August 13, 2021. The ordinary least squares and the machine learning estimators show that stringency measures are negatively related to the COVID-19 outcomes. A higher time spent away from home is positively associated with the COVID-19 outcomes. The paper also discusses the potential economic implications for the United States.

Correlation Between Mobility and COVID-19 Cases in Surabaya City, Indonesia

The number of COVID-19 cases in Surabaya was one of the highest in Indonesia at the beginning of the pandemic. This study aims to determine the mobility and activity patterns of the people of Surabaya during the COVID-19 pandemic and find a correlation between people mobility and the number of COVID-19 cases in Surabaya City using Pearson’s Coefficient of Correlation (PCC). The data used are mobility data at Gubeng Station, Purabaya Terminal, Waru Utama toll gate, and COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. The mobility pattern of the people of Surabaya City in 2020 is divided into 5 phases, namely the normal condition phase (F0), the pandemic’s initial phase (F1), the PSBB phase (F2), the transition of AKB phase (F3), and the AKB phase (F4). This study indicates that the number of people in transit stations and residential areas has a high correlation with the number of COVID-19 cases. In addition, the type of mobility that has the most effect on increasing the number of COVID-19 cases is the mobility of bus transportation

Mobility indicators and COVID-19 growth ratio in Iraq: a correlation study.

BackgroundThere is no prior study of the effect of mobility-limiting measures on the occurrence of COVID-19 in Iraq.ObjectivesTo determine the relationship between publicly available mobility index data and the growth ratio (GR) of COVID-19.MethodWe used Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports to extract Iraq’s mobility data and the official Ministry of Health COVID-19 statements. We used the data to calculate the Pearson’s correlation coefficient and fit a linear regression model to determine the relationship between percentage change from the baseline in the mobility indices and the GR of COVID-19 in Iraq.ResultsThere was a moderate positive correlation between each of the mobility indices except the residential index and COVID-19 GR in Iraq. The general linear model indicated that as each of the mobility indices increases by one unit, the GR of COVID19 increases by 0.002–0.003 except for the residential index. As the residential mobility index increases by one unit, the GR decreases by 0.009. All the findings were statistically significant (P-value < 0.0001).ConclusionMobility-limiting measures may be able to reduce the growth rate of COVID-19 moderately. Accordingly, mobility-limiting measures should be combined with other public control measures particularly mass mask use.