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Google Report: Tracking How the State Hunkered Down the Past Month During Omicron

January 20, 2022

Sometimes masks and social distancing aren’t enough. Sometimes, to avoid the risk of COVID-19, people avoid public places and spend more time at home.

A new Community Mobility Report from Google, released Jan. 19, reveals Connecticut residents took fewer chances the past month in public spaces, with a substantial decrease in traffic to grocery stores and pharmacies, restaurants and shopping centers. Workplace visits were also down dramatically from pre-COVID levels and down even from the previous month. Visits to parks also showed a decline, though that is likely weather-related.

“We are managing the pandemic at this time, but we have not won the war yet,” said Dr. Ajay Kumar, Hartford HealthCare’s Chief Clinical Officer, at a Jan. 20 media briefing. “We’ve got a ways to go. This is the time all of us think about how we reduce the loss of life and reduce suffering.”

The Community Mobility Report, prepared for public health officials, uses information from Google Maps and other sources to track movement. Google uses as a pre-COVID baseline the median value for the five-week period from Jan. 3 to Feb. 6, 2020.

Here are the latest statewide results, followed by the numbers from early December, as Omicron arrived in Connecticut:

Google Mobility Results for Connecticut as of Jan. 17

Residential: Up 18 percent.
Workplace: Down 50 percent.
Transit stations: Down 46 percent.
Parks: DowN 33 Percent.
Grocery and pharmacy: Down 18 Percent.
Retail and recreation (includes restaurants, shopping centers, theme parks, libraries and movie theaters): Down 25 percent.

Google Mobility Results for Connecticut as of Dec. 6

Residential: Up 6 percent.
Workplace: Down 20 percent.
Transit stations: Down 24 percent.
Parks: DowN 5 Percent.
Grocery and pharmacy: Up 5 Percent.
Retail and recreation (includes restaurants, shopping centers, theme parks, libraries and movie theaters): Down 5 percent.