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Filipinos’ visit to recreational places have declined by 80% amid COVID-19 lockdown – Google

The trips of Filipinos to places of recreation such as restaurants and movie theaters have declined by 80 percent, according to data collated by Google.
Reuters reported that the same drop in outdoor activities was observed in The United Kingdom and France.
The information is from the analysis of location data from billions of Google users’ phones.
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The data is the largest public dataset available to help health authorities assess if people are following directives of governments around the world to stay at home as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus.
The reports or findings are published, says Google, considering the debate on data privacy.
The company released reports for 131 countries with charts that compare traffic from Feb. 16 to March 29 to retail and recreational venues, train and bus stations, grocery stores and workplaces with a five-week period earlier this year.
In the hard-hit countries of Italy and Spain, the drop in visits to recreational places dropped by 94%.
India, with its 21-day lockdown that started on March 25, saw a drop of up to 77%.
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In the USA, where states response in different ways, and in Australia, where people went out to the beach because of good weather saw a drop of under 50%.
In Japan and Sweden, where authorities were not harsh, the drop was at 25%.
In South Korea, where the outbreak was effectively contained, the drop in visits to recreational facilities was only 19%.
Social distancing was a challenge during grocery visits in Singapore and the United States.
In March, visits to park increased in the San Francisco Bay Area which prompted authorities to close these sites as well.
Google underscored that it was not sharing demographic information or location of users.
The company added that it was open to including additional information and countries in follow-up reports.
Based on the tally done by Reuters, over 1 million worldwide are infected by the virus that causes COVID-19 while more than 52,000 have died.

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