Recovery tracker: Workplace visits rise despite spurt in Covid-19 cases

Dip in power generation, vehicle registrations from previous week

Employers have more people coming in to work despite the spike in Covid-19 cases.

The total number of cases was 17,073 according to a government release on Monday, up 33.6 per cent from a week ago.

Workplace visits are now 21 per cent above what was seen in a baseline period for 2020 before Covid-19 took hold. This is higher than the 18 per cent rise seen a week ago, shows mobility data from search engine Google. It uses anonymised location data to track how people are moving during the pandemic. Retail and recreation visits were down in the same period.

Power generation is down 2.83 per cent from the previous week. All the power plants in the country generated an average of 4,445 million units of electricity in the latest week. It was 4,574 million units in the previous week. Power generation remains higher than in 2019.

Vehicle registrations were lower than 2019 levels for the third week in a row. A total of 354,341 vehicles were registered in the latest week. This is 17.3 per cent lower than the 428,599 vehicles registered in the same period in 2019.

Major cities saw some decline in traffic congestion as of Monday morning 9 a.m., shows data from global location technology firm TomTom International. New Delhi traffic was down 43 per cent in relation to 2019 levels for the latest week. It had been down 42 per cent previously. Mumbai traffic was down 44 per cent in the latest week, compared to the 30 per cent decline seen previously.

The seven-day moving average of airline flights and passengers remained more or less steady. Averages were used where archival data was unavailable. Sunday data showed 2,768 domestic flights compared to 2,770 flights a week ago. The number of passengers increased in the same period.

Indian Railways showed higher growth in the quantity of goods carried. It was up 16.49 per cent compared to 13.4 per cent in the previous week. The amount of money the railways made from carrying these goods, called freight revenue, was up 25.85 per cent compared to 21.35 per cent previously.

Business Standard tracks these indicators as a way of getting a weekly picture of how the economy is doing. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally track similar indicators to get a more up-to-date picture of the effects of Covid-19 and restrictions imposed to control its spread. The Google data is released with a lag. The latest is as of Wednesday, June 22. The traffic data is as of Monday, June 27. All other data is as of Sunday, June 26.