Google used location data collected from smartphones to help healthcare providers understand how people’s movements have changed in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on these data, the company generates COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports for different countries. The list includes more than 130 countries, but Russia is not among them yet.

Everyone can see the reports. They are available in PDF format.

Each report contains information on movement patterns in 6 categories:

• Retail and leisure, including visits to restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, cinemas and similar places.
• Grocery stores and pharmacies, including supermarkets, food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty grocery stores, etc.
• Parks, including public beaches, squares, and other public places.
• Public transport, including metro stops and bus and train stations.
• Offices, production.
• Living spaces.

The data in the reports reflect the situation for the last 48-72 hours, and the percentage of changes represents the difference between the movements in this month and at the end of January.

The new program is designed to help health authorities identify which regions require more stringent responses to the epidemic.

Google plans to update reporting data in the future, but the exact date was not yet made public.

Moreover, Google will also work with epidemiologists working on COVID-19 to update the existing aggregate dataset that is used to predict a pandemic.