Mobility and Covid-19

We analyze and monitor mobility and contacts in Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Recent Reports

Analysis for sampling bias in contact data

14.03.2022

When collecting data, it can easily happen that certain groups of the population are overrepresented; the population sample is biased, so to speak. A well-known example of this sampling bias comes from medical research, where new drugs are largely tested on men in clinical trials.

P Klamser

Contact monitor update: now for federal states

01.03.2022

As of today (01.03.2022), it is possible to observe the contact behavior for each federal state in our contact-monitor. The monitor is daily updated, although it takes a few days for enough user data to arrive to calculate the contact measures.

P Klamser

Update: Omicron - Import Risk (potentially affected Countries)

17.12.2021

Here, we update and extend a recent report from 29.11.2021 with new data. At the time the first omicron report was written, omicron was detected in only 11 countries. Today (17.

A Zachariae, P Klamser

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About the project

In the Covid-19 Mobility Project, we study movement flows obtained from anonymized mobile phone data.

By looking at mobility we can measure how the population reacts to the pandemic, what the effects of different measures are, and use computer models to estimate how this will affect the pandemic.

You can explore mobility for yourself in the Mobility Monitor
More in-depth analyses can be found in our Reports.

Our results are featured in the following publication:

Schlosser, F., Maier, B. F., Jack, O., Hinrichs, D., Zachariae, A., & Brockmann, D. (2021).
COVID-19 lockdown induces disease-mitigating structural changes in mobility networks.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(52), 32883–32890.
https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2012326117

News

P Klamser

Flight network: The spread of Omicron

In addition to mobility and contacts, we are now looking at the worldwide air transportation network and how the new Omicron variant might spread across it.

New Monitor: Contacts and the Pandemic

In addition to mobility, we now show the average contacts in the population over time—with equally exciting insights into the course of the pandemic.

Redesign of the website

We have revised the Covid-19 Mobility Project website and improved it in many places.

Research on Complex Systems

Our research focuses on the dynamics of infectious diseases.

We develop integrative, computational and network models, numerical methods and application-oriented computer simulations of complex contagion phenomena and disease spread.

In this context, we try to improve our understanding and predict the dynamics of infectious diseases using methods from dynamical systems theory, complexity theory, complex network science, game theory and theoretical physics in a transdisciplinary approach.

You can find more information about our work on our website.