Sensing pedestrian flows for assessment of non-pharma policy interventions during COVID-19 pandemic

Reducing the number of social contacts within a population has shown to be an effective measure to reduce the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some prominent non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been, e.g., stay-at-home orders or closing schools/businesses. To assess changes in spatial mobility of the German population, sensor data of pedestrian flows in 49 metropolitan areas at 100 locations in Germany were linked with NPI measurements that intended to reduce the number of social contacts. As a pandemic requires a quick assessment of the effectiveness of policy interventions, we analyzed the suitability of such real-time technologies for measuring behavioral changes in a population. The sensors detected changes in the population's behavior even before policy interventions were enacted. Moreover, a reduction in pedestrian counts by up to 85% compared to the pre-pandemic year was found. This presentation will discuss the findings and potential of linking sensor data and non-pharmaceutical interventions in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, we present some promising directions for subsequent research and applications. View original article: https://ijpds.org/article/view/1688