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On the first day of general confinement decreed by the Government in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portuguese followed “very lightly” the instructions to stay at home. The conclusion comes from the consulting firm PSE, specialized in information sciences, which points out that this Friday there was a reduction in mobility in Portugal, “but that nothing compares with the first emergency shutdown that we suffer ”.
Last Monday, January 11, 30.5% of the Portuguese population stayed at home, a level only five percentage points above the pre-pandemic figures. This Friday, the first day of the new confinement, only 39.5% of the Portuguese were homebound – which corresponds to an increase of only nine percentage points compared to the beginning of the week. On Thursday, the percentage of Portuguese at home was 33% (less than 6.5% compared to the next day) and in high mobility it was 31% (4.7 percentage points more than on Friday). It should be noted that high mobility corresponds to trips of more than 20 kilometers.
The PSE data also shows a reduction in the mobility index of the Portugueses (reflecting population in circulation, distances traveled, and travel times), which was set at level 82 this Friday, just 18 percentage points below the average level of a “normal day before the pandemic” (100 ). Level 100 represents the value of the average mobility of the Portuguese between January 1 and March 14, 2020.
The consulting firm points out, in a report that essentially confirms the data that had been advanced on Friday, that on December 24 (Christmas Eve), December 28 and 31 (New Year’s Eve) last year a level was also registered. mobility close to that verified this Friday.
The first delivery was “much superior”
During the first confinement, between March and April of last year, the average number of people confined at home was 61%, a figure much higher than the 39.5% registered this Friday. What leads PSE to conclude that the first confinement at home was “far superior at the level we have now, at least on this first day ”.
However, the consultant warns, “this does not necessarily mean that the Portuguese are not complying with the standards dictated by the Government.” “It may simply be the consequence of the differences in the restrictions now imposed, which are quite different from the first situation. In particular, the issue of the opening of schools and the additional openings that exist now ”, he says, highlighting that it will be necessary to analyze the effective compliance with the regulations in the coming business days to verify the“ real achievement of emergency shutdown effective mobility ”, since“ the weekend is a period in which there is naturally greater confinement ”.
PSE also highlights that “In the last month of December the Portuguese have been fulfilling the curfew after 11 at night”however, there was “a trend towards less compliance with this rule on Fridays.” Last Friday, January 15, there has already been an increase in the number of people who stayed at home and a greater fulfillment of home retirement.
The PSE study is the result of a continuous collection of data (24 hours a day) by monitoring the location and means of travel, through a mobile application, of a panel of 3670 people representing the Portuguese population over 15 years. resident in Greater Porto, Greater Lisbon, North Coast, Central Coast and Faro District. According to the consultancy, for a universe of 6,996,113 people residing in the regions studied, the margin of error is 1.62% for a 95% confidence interval.
