Impact of Covid-19 on mobility behaviour

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to keep governments and the general public on high alert. Among all the news of the economy shrinking and Trump possibly losing the election due to Covid-19, we asked ourselves:

How did the mobility behavior of the public change as a response to the ever changing case numbers and restrictions established by local and federal governments?

With the help of the Google Mobility Report we will try to visualize the data, that answers the question above.

Germany

Covid-19 arrived in Germany in late January among the first states in the European Union. With rapidly increasing numbers of cases and hospitalized patients, some German local governments reacted with a strict curfew in late March and early April, to slow down the spread of the pandemic. The results have been a hit on the economy and a pandemic that slowed down but might resurface again as a second wave crashing upon society in the cold months of November and December.

Besides the economy, the pandemic had a strong impact on the mobility behaviour of the public. But not every states mobility recovered in the same way.

Regional Impact

The impact on mobility not only affects each German States differently but also the type of mobility is affected in different ways.

With the peak of the first wave in March and April and the following recovery over the Summer, the second wave might be on the horizon and the data shows.