Coronavirus Impact: Average step count drops to 3146 steps from 6432 between March 2-17, says GOQii

Amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the county, the government has taken various initiatives to lock down many cities and states to contain the spread of the pandemic. According to the holistic health platform, GOQii, government efforts have proved fruitful as most people across India have been confined to their homes.

As per the real-time step count data of over 5 lakh 'GOQii activity tracker' users, the average step count has reduced by 51 per cent across the country. The average step count has dropped from 6,432 steps on March 2 to 3,146 steps on March 17, 2020. There has been a signification drop within the last four days -- from 20 per cent average footfall on March 13 to 51 per cent on March 17.

The data also reveals the reasons behind the drop in the average daily step count. These include the call for social distancing by the Central government and state authorities to contain the spread of coronavirus, fear of stepping out into crowded spaces and public transport vehicles, closure of all public places such as malls, cinema halls, religious places of worship, gyms, monuments and lastly work from home.

GOQii has further classified the data into state wise footfall. Kerala, which had the first positive case on January 30, 2020, and which increased to 27 confirmed positive cases, has seen a drop in its step count by 62 per cent as on March 17. The drop in step count started earlier in Kerala due to the initial cases starting from the state. However, with a rapid spurt of cases in Maharashtra, the drop in step count in the state stands at 49 per cent.

On the city level, Mumbai and Pune have seen a fairly steep decline of daily step count, with the former at 52 per cent, and latter at 49 per cent. Even though some of the other states do not have cases most of India seems to be taking precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. The drop seen across states ranges from 35 per cent to 62 per cent.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's idea of declaring March 22 as the 'Janta Curfew' is a very good idea. While India is currently at 51 per cent, with the Janta curfew we can reach 100 per cent lockdown. Let us all work towards this and support our government and our doctors who are tirelessly working towards containing the spread of COVID2019," says Vishal Gondal, Founder & CEO, GOQii.

Earlier this week, GOQii introduced a 'contact tracking' preventive feature on its app. This new feature is designed to help individuals maintain a real-time database of the people they have interacted in-person. This will help authorities and individuals quickly track the details in case the user has been tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The company has also created a WhatsApp Chatbot on coronavirus for helping everyone with their queries.

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