As Melbourne and other cities grapple with COVID-19 management, governments and public health officials can access free, almost real-time resources to help avert a possible ‘second wave’ of COVID-19, South Australian experts say.
Governments planning for re-opening borders, or for a “second wave”, need to combat complacency and “social distancing fatigue” and using Apple (Google or other) mobility data could be a very useful additional monitoring tool, the experts say in a ‘Perspective’ article in the Medical Journal of Australia.
The SA Public Health and Flinders University researchers used mobility data to study the timing of universal drops in mass population movement at the start of the global pandemic in early 2020, finding movement voluntarily decreased sharply around 12 March 2020, “which in any other situation would appear coordinated and uniform to military level precision”.
The experts found Apple mobility data is a crude measure of movement and social distancing uptake in the population based on Apple product usage and the use of Apple maps for daily movement.
“Despite the limitations, mobility data are a potentially effective tool for monitoring population behaviour that informs public health action,” says Professor Robert Adams, from Flinders University’s College of Medicine and Public Health.
Interestingly the mobility data available in major cities around the world saw the same pattern consistently replicated. Including in Australia, the populations of 22 cities in nine regions across the world showed reduced movement away from home – even before and without stay-at-home orders being issued.
“Behaviour in Hong Kong and Singapore suggests prior respiratory pandemic experience (SARS etc) can lead to early voluntary social distancing. However, government restrictions may be needed for sustained social distancing.
“The mobile phone data gives a ‘big picture’ overview of whether stay-at-home orders, or voluntary self-isolation, or public health warnings are having an affect on civilian activity,” says the Adelaide-based Flinders Professor in Respiratory Medicine.
The article, Australia can use population level mobility data to right COVID-19, is available on the Medical Journal of Australia website.