Osaka Metropolitan University researchers, Assistant Professor Haruka Kato and Professor Atsushi Takizawa of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology, conducted human mobility time series research to explore how lifestyle adjustments can decrease COVID-19 transmission, while maintaining social rhythm. and economic activities. They found that controlling people’s mobility in fast spaces based on infection levels, rather than uniformly restricting all human mobility, could be effective in reducing the number of new COVID-19 infections.
The researchers performed two time-series cross-correlation analyses; the first analyzed the total distance traveled daily by citizens of Ibaraki City and the number of COVID-19 infections in the region, from January 2020 to July 2021. The city of Ibaraki is a typical suburban city of the Osaka metropolitan area, located between the city of Osaka and Kyoto, with a population of around 280,000. Due to the extensive rail network of Ibaraki City, many citizens arrive at one of the largest business centers, which takes about 30 minutes.
When the first state of emergency was declared, from April to May 2020, the total distance traveled by the citizens of Ibaraki City decreased and was not particularly replaced thereafter, unless they were consecutive holidays. In addition, a small positive correlation between the total distance traveled and the number of COVID-19 infections was observed, with the most powerful correlation between them when infections had to be changed for six weeks from the total distance traveled.
This study clarified that the distance traveled by citizens had only a small relationship with the number of infections, although previous studies looking at the era of the initial level clarified a strong correlation. It would possibly have an effect on the number of new infections. The effects of the Ibaraki City studies were published in PLoS ONE on September 1, 2022.
At the time the research looked at the types of places other people visited during the pandemic, adding grocery stores and pharmacies, parks, workplaces, residences, retail outlets and public transportation use, and how visiting those places is similar to the total number of other people inflamed. for a period of 2 years. – Period of one week. The study covered 3 adjacent prefectures (Osaka, Kyoto, and Hyogo) from March 2020 to September 2021, and showed a strong relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and the number of visitors to grocery stores or pharmacies, as well as parks. , and weak dating with the use of public transport. These effects were published in npj Urban Sustainability.
Please indicate the appropriate maximum category to facilitate the processing of your request
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback to the editors.
Your opinion is for us. However, we do not guarantee individual responses due to the large volume of messages.