While Malta registered its peak in the number of coronavirus cases in April, Google data has revealed many people moved around more than they did in March, despite authorities’ calls for them to stay home.

In its second report on people’s movements amid the outbreak, using location data in mobile apps, Google found movement related to the various categories it reviewed was higher in April than in the previous month.

Throughout April, a number of people classified as vulnerable were still under quasi-lockdown, only allowed to go out for basic essentials, while many were still working from home. Schools, restaurants and all non-essential shops and services also remained closed.

Yet, despite this, the latest report by Google shows movements to places of retail, workplaces and grocery stores as well as parks were not as infrequent as they had been in March.

Google says it works out the insights based on data from users who have opted in to location history for their Google account and so the data represents a sample of their users.

It compares figures to averages from a five-week period between January 3 and February 6, which is exactly a month before Malta registered its first coronavirus case on March 7.

In the March report, visits to workplaces, for instance, fell by 49% from the January-February period. But in April, these decreased by 42%.

Similarly, while in March trips to supermarkets and grocery stores went down by 76% compared to the first few weeks of the year, this was down by 68% in April.

And with the weather warming up, it seems many more opted to visit places like parks, beaches, marinas, dog parks, squares and public gardens in April.

While visits to such places had taken a hit in the first report, going down by 45%, this was not the case in the review for April when the data showed a decrease of just 24%.

While the mobility trends for places of residence were the only category to mark an increase over the five-week period at the start of the year, the numbers for April were still slightly less than those for March.

In the first report, Google noted an increase of 19% in people being around places of residence.

Throughout the following month, however, while still marking an increase over the pre-coronavirus period, the figure decreased by three percentage points to 16%.