Retail, recreational places see sharp drop in footfall

SHILLONG: Meghalaya saw a 69 per cent drop in terms of footfall in people visiting retail and recreational places, while those visiting parks, transit stations, and grocery and pharmacy units dropped by 19 per cent, 24 per cent and 42 per cent each during the national lockdown imposed to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease, according to the latest community mobility data released by Google.
The mobility report published by Google on May 16 states that there was a 14 per cent decline in work places, but mobility in residences increased by 16 per cent as people largely stayed at home during the lockdown.
For retail and recreational places, mobility trends were analysed in places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters while for grocery & pharmacy, the mobility trends focused on places like grocery markets, food warehouses, farmers’ markets, specialty food shops, drug stores and pharmacies.
Google’s Community Mobility Reports, a website launched in April to track people’s movement in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, now includes state-wise data for India.
It uses smartphone location data to publish reports about people’s movement in an area.
So far, the reports were country-specific and showed trends of certain locations.
The community mobility reports by Google, which also show trends over several weeks, are a composite representation of the number and length of visits people make to certain kinds of places compared to a baseline.
The data is collected from users who opt in to locate history for their Google account, without revealing their identity.
The results were obvious as the government has ordered shopping malls and other crowded spaces to remain shut until further notice to avoid the spread of coronavirus.
The Community Mobility Report aims at providing insights into what has changed in response to policies aimed at combating COVID-19.
The reports chart movement trends over time by geography, across different categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential.