  The emergence of the novel Coronavirus Disease in late 2019 (COVID-19) and
subsequent pandemic led to an immense disruption in the daily lives of almost
everyone on the planet. Faced with the consequences of inaction, most national
governments responded with policies that restricted the activities conducted by
their inhabitants. As schools and businesses shuttered, the mobility of these
people decreased. This reduction in mobility, and related activities, was
recorded through ubiquitous location-enabled personal mobile devices. Patterns
emerged that varied by place-based activity. In this work the differences in
these place-based activity patterns are investigated across nations,
specifically focusing on the relationship between government enacted policies
and changes in community activity patterns. We show that people's activity
response to government action varies widely both across nations as well as
regionally within them. Three assessment measures are devised and the results
correlate with a number of global indices. We discuss these findings and the
relationship between government action and residents' response.
