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Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports

Google mobility data highlights how COVID-19 restrictions and initiatives have impacted visits to retail and recreation locations.

COVID-19 Novel data sources
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Google mobility data highlights how COVID-19 related government restrictions and initiatives impacted the numbers of visits to retail and recreation locations in the North East and elsewhere during the period mid-July - mid-October 2020.

Visits to retail and recreation locations in the North East decreased after the introduction of local restrictions in September according to analysis of Google mobility data by the North East LEP. This followed an increase during August at the time of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

The decrease in visit numbers in other locations where stricter restrictions were introduced in October highlights the potential impact of such measures on the North East.

Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports to 18th October

Google provide mobility reports in PDF format for each UK local authority (and for many locations around the world) together with raw daily data going back to mid-February. These statistics show how the number of visits to different types of places compare to an early 2020 baseline. The intention of the data is “to help remediate the impact of COVID-19”.

Google mobility data can provide indications of the local impact of changes to restrictions and of policies such as Eat Out to Help Out on the number of visits to retail and recreation locations.

The data records visits to six types of location. In this report, we focus on visits to retail and recreation locations. These include restaurants, cafés, shopping centres, theme parks, museums, libraries and cinemas. They exclude supermarkets and pharmacies which are within a separate category.

Download the report

The North East COVID-19 Response Group

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the biggest economic shock of our lifetimes, with no straightforward recovery.

To address this, the North East COVID-19 Economic Response Group was convened, made up of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), CBI, North of Tyne and North East Combined Authorities with the support of industry, to ensure the North East has strong economic leadership that acts quickly and collaboratively to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19.

The North East Recovery and Renewal Deal was published in September 2020, which asks government for £2.8 billion investment to unlock half for the 100,000 more jobs required to support North East recovery quickly. 

Find out more