In attempts to control the spread of this outbreak, the Lebanese government called to decrease general mobility, urging people to remain in their homes unless absolutely necessary.
The government took measures to enforce the lockdown such as deploying the army to make sure people abide by the rules, by giving tickets to people who broke them, raiding crowded places and shutting them down, sending helicopters to remind people to stay indoors, and so on.
Despite that, heavy traffic is still a problem in some streets in Lebanon. To better understand the movement of the community, Google created COVID-19 Community Mobility reports.
“Google prepared this report to help you and public health officials understand responses to social distancing guidance related to COVID-19,” it states in the report.
The results show people’s current movement behavior compared to before the Coronavirus blew up in the country.
Google’s report focuses on six categorized places for Lebanon:
(1) Retail & Recreation: restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, movie theaters, etc.
(2) Grocery & Pharmacy: markets, food warehouses, drug stores, pharmacies, etc.
(3) Parks: public gardens, public beaches, snow resorts, etc.
(4) Transit stations: public transport, buses, vans…
(5) Workplaces: movement around places of work.
(6) Residential: movement around places of residence.
According to the report, there has definitely been a drop in general mobilization. Residential areas have seen an increase of 15% of movement around there, showing that people are gradually spending more time at home.
Wordplaces have seen a 41% decrease in mobility trends, but the line is inconsistent and seems to be slowly increasing since the end of March.
Transit stations (public transportation vehicles such as Connex, buses, vans, and taxis) have seen the most decrease at -84%. The government is fining drivers who break lockdown or social distancing, such as this taxi driver who set his car on fire. Sadly, these people rely on daily income which they now are deprived of.
Mobility trends around public beaches and gardens were higher than normal prior to the second week of March before some people started taking it seriously. Now they’re seeing a 59% drop.
Data in the grocery and pharmacy category show a slow decline (-48%) after a peak in the second week of March.
Finally, restaurants, cafes, movie theaters, etc are all closed now, so the data shows a drop of 73% activity around there.
Get the latest news and updates about the coronavirus outbreak in Lebanon along with a live monitor of cases in Lebanon as well as resources and information to help you guide the outbreak on our dedicated coronavirus page.
