CONFINEMENT REACHED RECORD ON EASTER SUNDAY
PSE made an analysis crossing the covid-19 contamination rate, in each municipality, with the real mobility of the populations. Mobility is measured through the APP PSE Mobility Panel, which, through a panel, manages to know the actual displacement of the population, at each hour of the day. This study has been conducted 24 hours a day, every day of the year, since 2019.
The population general confinement reached a record on Easter Sunday, where 79% stayed at home. During this pandemic, #stayathome has evolved as follows:
Assessing the level of confinement at home, since the beginning of March, we see that the Portuguese have massively adhered to the guidelines of the authorities, but with some variations.
Before the declaration of a state of emergency and the closing of schools, confinement in a “natural” home was between 20% and 30% on working days, with around 40% on Sundays.
Easter Analysis
The time of Easter raised concerns for the authorities, but the measures taken, and the behaviour of the Portuguese resulted in high levels of confinement. The minimum value (during the state of emergency) was obtained on April 8, but still counted 54% at home.
After the constraints that came into force on the 9th, Thursday, the Portuguese globally followed the guidelines of the authorities. The Easter period reinforced the “stay at home” reaching the maximum value on Easter Sunday, with 79% at home.
It is now important to assess how the Portuguese will behave in the second half of April, and PSE will naturally monitor the situation day by day.
Analysis: Easter 2020 vs. Easter 2019
We can compare the behaviour of the Portuguese during Easter week in 2019 and 2020.
While in 2019, only 30% to 36% remained at home, this value fluctuated, in 2020, between 54% and 79%. In other words, leaving home has halved in 3 of the 7 days analysed. Throughout Holy Week the average drop was -31 pp.
At this point, it will be particularly important to understand what the Portuguese will do in the coming weeks regarding confinement.
PSE has this information daily and will disclose the information to DGS and the media.
Easter Sunday: 79% without leaving; 93% close to home
If we compare last year Easter Sunday with this year Easter Sunday, remembering that both were sunny, we will see differences in terms of mobility:
If in 2019 about 47% of the population was on medium or high mobility (medium or long-distance travel) on Easter Sunday, in 2020, only 7% of the population needed displacement.
In contrast, in 2020, in addition to the 79% who were in clear confinement, we still have 14% of the population with low mobility (proximity displacements).
We can say that on Easter Sunday, about 93% of the Portuguese population was confined at home or close to their residence.
PSE CONTACT:
info@pse.pt
TECHNICAL NOTE: This study is the PSE mobility panel, with continuous data collection through location monitoring and means of travel via mobile application of a panel of representative individuals from the Universe over 15 years old, residing in the Greater Porto regions , Greater Lisbon, North Coast, Central Coast and Faro District. For a universe of 6,996,113 individuals residing in the studied regions (81% of the population aged 15 and over in Mainland Portugal), the margin of error attributable to the study is 1.62% for a 95% confidence interval.
