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People in every county in Ireland are increasingly traveling more than 10km from home, according to new data identifying “some relaxation” in complying with Covid-19 restrictions.
The third report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Staying Local Indicator (SLI) released Monday uses anonymized data from mobile phones to measure people’s movements over a seven-day period.
It was found that a third of the country’s population does not stay within 10 km of their homes and the level of compliance with Covid-19 restrictions has decreased during February.
However, the vast majority of the country remains cornered: 66.7% remained within the 10 km zone analyzed between the weeks ending February 5 and February 12.
“All counties showed SLI declines. . . from 0.6 percentage points (Waterford) to 2.9 percentage points (Roscommon), indicating some relaxation in mobility behavior, ”said the CSO.
The SLI data is a seven-day moving average of travel patterns taken as the public is continually urged not to move where possible to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The largest decrease in adherence to mobility for the last week of data was Roscommon with 2.9 percent.
Dublin remains the county with the highest percentage of the population remaining local (79.7%). While this is a relatively high adherence rate, the OSC notes that it reflects the urbanized nature of the capital and its relatively superior access to services compared to other counties.
“Dublin, with a high level of urbanization, consistently shows the highest percentage of people staying in place, while Mayo and Roscommon, with low levels of urbanization, have the lowest percentage of people staying within the 10 km from home ”.
However, while the data shows an increase in distances traveled during the week, things have generally stabilized. A broader analysis shows that between January 6 and February 12, the percentage of the population that “stays local” remained between 65.6% and 68.7%.
The Staying Local Indicator (SLI) is based on the analysis of anonymized and aggregated mobile phone activity logs, according to the CSO.
It says that Three Ireland’s data is collected from anonymized data sets on a macro scale, aggregated at the electoral division and provided to the Department of Health. Personal data is not provided or analyzed.
“The results of this analysis provide important information for decision makers and the public amid the global pandemic,” he says.
Separately, data from Dublin City Council as of February 15 shows that traffic volumes in the capital remain relatively low.
While this data looks at volumes rather than distances traveled, it was found that during January with Level 5 restrictions, traffic crossing the city’s canal cordon remained “at a constant 55 percent to 59 percent. “from the pre-Covid volumes.
Cycling volumes were stable through December but have since declined to the levels last seen in April.
Although bus ridership rose to a considerable 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels during the Tier 3 measures in December, it has since fallen to about 23 percent and remains static.
The AA said national data sources have shown that while block three is more crowded on the roads than block one, they remain much quieter than would be considered “normal pre-pandemic.”
Spokesman Barry Aldworth said major routes are experiencing traffic volume around 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Today, however, the traffic is roughly 50 percent higher than the levels of the first block.
This last comparison is explained by several factors that differentiate the two periods of national travel restrictions: no cocoon among the elderly; a distance of 5 km compared to a distance of 2 km; and more active businesses.
“We expected closure three to be busier than closure one and that’s the case,” Aldworth said. “The feeling we have when talking to Gardaí is that people are [generally] doing what they’re supposed to do. ”
However, on Sunday AA monitors detected rising traffic levels around Dublin’s hotspots, especially Phoenix Park. Mr. Aldworth explained that this was not necessarily an indication of non-compliance with the rules, as thousands of people live within a 5 km radius.
Over the weekend, it emerged that such increases in public movement could cause Garda staff to redeploy to oversee popular venues and discourage crowding, especially as the country emerges from a winter of harsh restrictions with little relief to the sight.
The Office of Public Works said Phoenix Park was “extremely busy” Sunday with all parking spaces “nearly full” at lunchtime.
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