Just another day
No dramatic change in the way we go out and about following 19th July 'Freedom Day'.
On 19th July the government scrapped all remaining restrictions in England that required masks to be worn in shops and other indoor settings, along with capacity limits in bars and restaurants and rules limiting the number of people who can socialise together.
On the same day, Scotland moved to Level 0 which eased social distancing rules, increased the number of people who could meet indoors and outdoors and allowed hospitality to open for longer. Employees were asked to carry on working from home where possible.
In Wales a more limited lifting of restrictions took place on 17th July and some restrictions on meeting indoors and outdoors were lifted in Northern Ireland on 26th July.
What was the upshot of the lifting of restrictions?
We used Google mobility data to map the impact. Google uses (opted in) location data from mobile phones to analyse the destination to which people have travelled.
The graphics show that Freedom Day was a bit of a damp squib. Comparing the Friday or Saturday prior to Freedom Day with the Friday and Saturday after 19th July shows very little changed, at least at the UK level.
- Fewer people travelled to work on the Friday after Freedom day than before it. This might have something to do with the start of the school holidays in England. In Scotland, some regions saw an increase in travelling to work despite the request to carry on working from home if possible.
- Fewer people went to the supermarket post Freedom day than before it. Again, some regions in Scotland and Northern Ireland bucked this trend.
- Public transport was slightly down across the UK.
- Freedom Day had more of an impact on travel to retail and recreation destinations (shopping centres, cafés, restaurants, theme parks, museums, libraries and cinemas). Travelling to these places was up almost 4 percentage points on the previous Saturday with South West and Central England, parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland recording above average travel. The figures for Northern Ireland are interesting because restrictions had not been formally lifted at this point.
- Travel to destinations other than the supermarket or pharmacy are still well down on pre-Covid levels. This probably reflects people's inherent caution as infection rates were rising at the time.
The data shows that despite Freedom Day we are still a long way from returning to normal.
