Visits to Metro Iloilo parks, groceries soar from pre-pandemic levels

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The number of people in the Iloilo Metropolitan Area who visited groceries and parks soared compared to the pre-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period amid a recent slowdown in cases, according to the Google mobility data as of Nov. 17, 2021.

Visits to grocery and pharmacy places – which include grocery markets, food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty food shops, drug stores, and pharmacies – increased by 37 percent compared to the pre-COVID baseline.

The number is “incredibly higher” compared to Jan 1, when the city and province of Iloilo was still under the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), at –66 percent.

Even if compared to Jan 3, the date when people started going back to work after the Christmas holidays, the rate was still below the baseline (–9 percent).

As establishments were allowed to operate amid the pandemic, visits to groceries and pharmacies have been consistently above the baseline, this year’s highest being on Nov. 16 at 40 percent.

The baseline is the median value for the corresponding day of the week during the 5-week period of Jan. 3 to Feb. 6, 2020 which was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As to visits to parks, which included national parks, public beaches, marinas, dog parks, plazas, and public gardens, the rate is currently at 13 percent. This was a slight decline from when visits to Molo Plaza were heavily regulated earlier this week on Nov. 16, with the mobility rate at 15 percent above baseline.

At the beginning of the year, visits to parks were at –28 percent, and rates were consistently in negative or only in single digits when above the baseline.

An uptick was first identified on Oct 26, when the rate was at 12 percent, and since November 6, rates have been above baseline with almost all days on double digits.

Visits to retail and recreation sites, which include restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters, have increased to –2 percent on Nov. 17.

The rate increased since some theaters in the city and province opened on Nov. 10, when the rate was at –6 percent.

Since the beginning of the year, mobility for retail and recreation has been in negative double digits, and only increased to negative single digits on Oct. 16 at –9 percent.

Percentage rates in this category have been fluctuating since that date, but have been observed to be increasing as restrictions were loosened.

Movement within residential areas or places of residence remained consistent above the baseline, currently at 17 percent.

The lowest mobility data detected in the Iloilo Metropolitan Area as of Nov. 17 were at transit stations (-22 percent) and at workplaces (-22 percent).

In workplaces, mobility has rarely been above the baseline, with this year’s highest only marked on Nov 7 at 9 percent.

Google calculated these insights based on data from users who turned on their Location History in their Google Accounts. The company added artificial noise to the datasets to make sure users’ privacy were respected.