46% of Czech residents returning from Italy did not obey quarantine, says data from bank cards

Prague, March 21 (CTK) – The data on the payment by bank cards assembled by the Czech technological group COVID19CZ last week have shown that 46 percent of returnees from Italy did not observe at least once the rules of the two-week quarantine, the server Seznam Zpravy said today.

On March 6, the government imposed the quarantine on the returnees from holiday in Italy in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection.

Seznam Zpravy also said the data on payment contact could be used to track down people’s movement, just as it is being done on the basis of cell phones.

“We can look at the number of the people who paid with their cards one week in Italy and the subsequent one in the Czech Republic. It is apparent from the payment transactions that these people were often coming out to buy something in the Czech Republic,” the server quoted Petr Bednarik, from the company DataSentics, as saying.

Thanks to the data on purchases abroad, the analysts found out that Czechs no longer stay in the riskiest countries, China, Iran and Italy.

In Germany, Austria and Spain, their activity is falling, but Czechs are still there.

“We must reckon with many Czechs still being in these countries. At least a part of them are likely to return,” Bednarik told Seznam Zpravy.

The COVID19CZ group also works with anonymous data of financial institutions. They reveal with a six-day delay the impact of the government measures on people’s behaviour.

The statistics reveals that the government decision in the past week enhanced Czechs’ purchases of food and drugs.

Last Saturday, 14 percent of Czechs more went to buy some food and 54 percent more some drugs than during the preceding three Saturdays.

Online shopping caused an increased operation at post offices.

The group COVID19CZ is comprised of the teams DataSentics and Keboola. It cooperates with prominent Czech financial institutions.