Community Mobility Report Shows Taiwan is Getting Back to Normal 2 Months After Epidemic Alert Became Level 2

People are getting back to their offices

On July 27, CECC(Central Epidemic Command Center) lower epidemic alert level to Level 2 from level 3. According to COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports which is provided by Google, the number of people going to the office was almost 20% less than baseline days. In COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, "the baseline day is the median value from the 5‑week period Jan 3 - Feb 6, 2020" which is the prior to COVID-19.

Since there was a special working day on September 11, the number of people in the workplace became higher than the trend. And, since there was the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, the number of people in the workplace became lower than the trend. But, if we exclude those exceptions, there is a strong trend that shows people are going back to their offices. And, the number of people in the workplace is almost the same level as the time before epidemic alert level 3.

However, the use of public transportation is still less than baseline days. Prior to the level 3 situation, it was quite normal to visit customers' offices and hold a meeting. In order to visit customers' offices, many people used public transportation. This suggests that people are now back in the office but people are still not going to other offices for meetings. Of course, limitation of events also affects the number of people using public transportation.

Compare with other countries

There are interesting trends we can see from Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Report. According to Our World in Data, the number of vaccinated people in Taiwan is about 60%. And, the US, UK and Japan have higher vaccination rates.

If we see the people going to Retail & Recreation which is defined as "places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters", we can see it is almost getting back to normal in the US and UK.

However, if we check the people in the workplaces for the US and UK, it is consistent at the level which is 25% less than baseline days. This means, in the US and UK, even though the number of people going to the Retail & Recreation is getting back to normal, people are still continuing to work from their home. Regarding the fact that vaccination rate is high and people going to Retail & Recreation is almost the same as pre-pandemic, people not going back to office might mean work from home became their new standard working style.

A little more to be normal again

Although we still have restrictions, I feel people are starting to feel safer again and that trend can be seen from the fact that people are going back to their office to work. However, use of public transportation is still not at the same level as before. This means, people are not moving around as before. Therefore, to become as normal as before, it seems we will need a little more time. We need a little more patience until then.