Google have been providing data on their “Community Mobility Indexes” for some timeĀ to help track the impacts of COVID-19 (you can get further details here). The indexes measure movement in six categories;
The index measures the percentage change from a base-line level which was the median value for 5 weeks between early Jan and early Feb 2020.
We have taken the average across all 6 indexes and then a 7-day average of this as the “Activity” indicator in this first chart.
As we can see, those States which have been enjoying a better health outcome are also benefiting from much better activity indicators. Victoria in particular has seen a sharp decline as the 2nd wave effects started to play out (this data is up to 31st July). The Cairns Regional Council area appears to have been doing exceptionally well on this metric with a decline from base-line of only about 1% compared to Victoria’s of almost 30%.
However, on considering the data in more detail, it becomes clear that the Parks and Residential indexes are picking up increased activity which is NOT necessarily related to ‘economic’ activity. Indeed the Cairns index for Parks sat at 40% above base-line at the end of July. This would appear to relate to people spending more time in the rain-forest and out on the reef, rather than in ‘economic’ pursuits.
We therefore created a second indicator which excludes the Parks and Residential indexes to try and get a better proxy for ‘economic’ activity. The chart below plots this new indicator. As we see the overall performance shifts lower (as expected) although the relative performance at the State level remains similar. What is also clear is the impact that holidays can have on this non-seasonally adjusted data set; witness the effect of the Queen’s Birthday holiday on June 8th in all States except WA and QLD.
Thanks to James Foster (follow his blog here) for first highlighting this data.