Day 74 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Looking At Swiss COVID-19 Case Graphs
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Day 74 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Looking At Swiss COVID-19 Case Graphs

Byrichard

For several days I have not been looking as seriously at the COVID-19 case graphs for Switzerland because we the storm waves of new cases that we were getting before are now no more than ripples on a pond. The situation seems to be under control in Switzerland.


A graph of the daily new cases – we see a consistent degradation of the wave.


As we look at the graph above we see that for at least a month the number of new cases was high every day but that by the fifteenth of April the number of cases decreased week, by week, until the number of new cases per day seems imperceptible at the scale of the graph above.


The graph for Switzerland has flattened.


The graph for the total number of cases has flattened for a few days now so we may be over the worst. I still wear a mask in the shops and I still respect the minimum two meter distance between individuals. I don’t want to lose a habit only to find I will need to resume it in a few days.


We have gone from a peak of around 14313 active cases in a day to less than 600 yesterday.


The number of active cases has also gone down. We are now at around six hundred active cases.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/mainvision/49940581723/in/datetaken/
Cars waiting to cross into France


During one of my many walks I passed by the French border from Vaud into Divonne and I saw columns of cars waiting to get into France. I saw one or two cars, turn around, in the hope of finding a less congested route. For people who have to cross borders on a daily basis patience will be even more important than usual.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/mainvision/49940583378/in/datetaken/
A discarded face mask.


Someone shared an image of two mice resting in hammocks with a caption to the effect that “it’s wonderful going into cities at the moment, there are plenty of hammocks to be found.”. The perspective is amusing.


Face mask as Political Statement headlines


When I went to the shops yesterday I saw that some people were wearing face masks, as was I. Now that I have a few I can wear them when I have to be indoors with other people or within close proximity to others. My only reason for not wearing a face mask was that I couldn’t find them. It was never a political statement.


For some people, the wearing of a mask is a sign of oppression and of submission. For others it is common sense to wear a face mask.


The Daily Walks


Yesterday the daily walk was a run and a walk. I went on a shorter route than usual because we’re at the end of the month and I had reached the daily distance goal for the day. I still walked fifteen thousand steps.


During a bike ride two days ago it was funny to see how a walking path had been worn between Signy and Eysins. So many people have walked along the grass by the road that they have left a walking path. Usually foot traffic is not heavy enough to leave a trace.


Daily Tasks


I have renamed one of my daily tasks from “write a blog post” to “work on the website”. Yesterday and the day before I spent hours working on my website so I was out of creativity when it came time to write a blog post. That little change means that I’m on a 70 day streak.


Day Nineteen of ORCA in Switzerland – TGIF
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Day Nineteen of ORCA in Switzerland – TGIF

Byrichard

Do you have that TGIF feeling like no one else does? In theory today is the day when people are happy, knowing that the weekend is about to start and they can do the things they love for the next two days. In this context though, that is unlikely. We’re meant to stay home.


This weekend is going to be extra special because the temperature is meant to reach 20°c, i.e. summer temperatures and so people will go out like ants on an applecore by the side of the road. If ever a weekend was likely to see a boom of cases next Friday it’s this one. According to the Swiss government people are good at following the rules but I still see examples of inconsiderate behaviour, both by young and not so young people.


Google has come up with the Google COVID-19 Mobility report. You may already be familiar with the discussion centered around how governments are asking telecom operators to provide them with mobile phone information about where and whether people are gathering.


Telecom operators, and application makers already have some information of where we are, where we’re gathering, how often we’re commuting and more. Google is making that data available in reports by countries. As I was curious to see this data I looked up Switzerland and then Geneva and Vaud.



The beauty of this data is that it shows the lag between the time people were told to stay home and when they did. It’s also to see where the peaks for parks, pharmacies and transit were. Last week we read about how the CFF are reducing the number of trains running. Today I was listening to the Don’t Touch Your Face episode discussing “The Airline Industry crashes“.



It’s interesting to think about transportation. Geneva is a city, and for a walker like me everything is within walking distance, if I have enough time. Vaud is larger so people are more used to using the car. This may explain why Vaud has a 68 percent drop in public transport use whereas Geneva has an 84 percent drop. Retail and recreation dropped by almost the same amount.



It’s interesting to compare Greater London with Geneva and Vaud because we see that the curves for transit and retail are more gradual, more rounded. The graphs suggest that Londoners started self-isolating of their own accord, and so when the order was given by the government to do so there was no great change. Of course the timescale is different so this might explain the softer change.


To some degree this pandemic is interesting because of all the data we can collect. Between blogs, instagram feeds, tweets, Facebook updates, mobile phone movements and more we really get a granular look at how the pandemic has affected people’s movements and habits.


During the post-pandemic discussions, studies and reports there will be millions of data points for people to study. Data analysts are going to have fun. So are big-data historians. This is a unique opportunity to see what worked, how long it took to be effective and more.


It’s a shame that Facebook and Twitter are so filled with marketers and PR professionals, rather than conversationalists. We’re going to have to see what remains of individual interactions later.


Do you have any interesting graphs or metrics to share?