New Google Data Shows How Malaysian Human Activity Has Changed Because Of Covid-19 Compared To Other Countries
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At this point we should no longer be surprised that Google tracks our every move, even when we’re at home. The good news is that all this data is exceptionally useful when it comes to visualizing trends and patterns, such as human activity.
In a new COVID-19 Community Mobility Report, Google’s latest dataset is intended to track the impact of the pandemic in individual countries.
They highlight the percentage change in different areas of human activity, such as retail shops or transportation hubs when compared to a pre-pandemic ‘baseline’ during the 5-week period 3 Jan – 6 Feb 2020.
The trends measures social distancing efforts in:
1) Retail and recreation
2) Grocery and pharmacy
3) Parks
4) Transit stations
5) Workplaces
6) Residential
(Credit: Google)
Due to Malaysia’s Movement Control Order (MCO), we saw a huge drop in people going out for recreation, transportation, and work. However, people could still go out for essentials such as groceries and medicine relatively easily. Most people opted to simply stay at home.
(Credit: Google)
Singapore’s recent circuit-breaker is similar to our MCO as well, recording a comparable drop in activities. However, the island-nation also saw a larger drop of activities at work, and a larger increase of people at home.
In general, Asia is doing a better job at reducing human activities and practicing staying-at-home.
Other countries of interest see a much smaller change compared to their baseline average, which is probably due to differences in government.
(Credit: Google)
Australia, for example, sees a mere 18% increase in people staying at home. They also record a small reduction of activity in grocery shopping and pharmacy visits, meaning that most people are shopping almost as regularly as they used to. People are still going to work as well, with only a 34% reduction in workplace activity.
(Credit: Google)
The UK showed a marked decrease in recreation activities and work, though the people are still enjoying the many parks in the country.
(Credit: Google)
The US sees a smaller decrease of human activity in the country. Human activity is almost the same in terms of grocery shopping and recreational activities in parks. They also record a small increase in staying-at-home. The US is also currently the country with the highest infected and death rates.
Of course, since each country has different methods in dealing with the pandemic, this comparison cannot be entirely accurate or represent how Covid-19 has impacted the country. Instead, it is an interesting look at how human lifestyles can and has shifted because of outside influences and government mandates.
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