Lockdown, social distancing due to coronavirus leads to 51 percent drop in footfalls, says study
The data was collected from over 5 lakh users who use GOQii's smart trackers. The average has dropped from 6,432 steps on March 2, to 3,146 steps on March 17.
PM Narendra Modi and the Government of India’s efforts towards lockdown of many cities and states to contain the spread of the novel Coronavirus across India has proved fruitful. In the wake of this spread, most people across India have been confined to their homes.
Amidst the scare of the virus spreading, half the population of India is now staying indoors and strictly following social distancing. Looking at the real time step count data collected by over 5 lakh users who are using Activity trackers, the results were crunched.
The results indicated that the average daily step count of Indians has reduced by 51 percent across the country. The average has dropped from 6,432 steps on March 2 to 3,146 steps on March 17.
With the increase in awareness and the government measures being proactive, Kerala displayed the highest drop in footfalls, which was at 72 percent as of March 17. Maharashtra with highest number of COVID-19 cases, has seen a drop of 49 percent in footfalls.
Cities in India are also seeing reduced step count. With a rapid increase in positive cases of COVID-19, Mumbai, the most urbanised and financial capital of the country and Pune have seen a fairly steep rise in decline of daily step count among the Mumbaikars and Punekars. While Mumbai has seen a steep drop of 52 percent, Pune has seen a decline of 49 percent.
Even though some of the other states do not have cases most of India seems to be taking precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. The drop seen across states ranges from 35 percent to 62 percent as on March 17, 2019.
"PM’s idea of declaring March 22 as ‘Janta Curfew’ is a very good idea. While India is currently at 51 percent, with the janta curfew, we can reach 100 percent lockdown. Let us all work towards this and support our government and our doctors who are tirelessly working towards containing the spread of COVID-19," said Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO of GOQii.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)