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State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
INTRODUCTION: The Japanese government declared a state of emergency (SoE) to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the requirements of these SoE were less stringent than those in other nations. It has not been assessed whether soft containment policies were sufficiently...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Elsevier Ltd.
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9167861/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35694018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2022.101405 |
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author | Okamoto, Shohei |
author_facet | Okamoto, Shohei |
author_sort | Okamoto, Shohei |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: The Japanese government declared a state of emergency (SoE) to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the requirements of these SoE were less stringent than those in other nations. It has not been assessed whether soft containment policies were sufficiently effective in the promotion of social distancing or the reduction of human contact. METHODS: Mobility changes across different travel destinations, such as, (a) retail and recreation spaces; (b) supermarkets and pharmacies; (c) parks; (d) public transportation; (e) workplaces; and (f) residential areas, were analysed using the Google mobility index to assess social distancing behaviour in all Japanese prefectures between 15 February 2020 and 21 September 2021. The changes were evaluated through the utilisation of an interrupted time-series analysis after adjustment for seasonality and various prefecture-specific fixed-effects, and distinguishment of potential heterogeneity across multiple SoEs and the time that had passed after the declaration. RESULTS: The mobility index for retail and recreation exhibited an immediate decline of 7.94 percent-points (95%CI: −8.77 to −7.12) after the declaration of the SoE, and a further decline after the initial period (beta: −1.27 95%CI: −1.43 to −1.11). However, it gradually increased by 0.03 percent-points (95%CI: 0.02–0.03). This trend was similar for mobility in other places. Among the four SoEs, the overall decline in human mobility outside the home was the least significant in the third and fourth SoE, which suggests that people were less compliant with social distancing measures during these periods. CONCLUSIONS: Although government responses to the pandemic may aid the controlling of human mobility outside the home, their effectiveness may decrease if these interventions are repeated and enforced for extended periods. A combination of these with other measures (i.e. risk-communication strategies) would enable even mild containment and closure policies to effectively curb the spread of the virus. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9167861 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Elsevier Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-91678612022-06-07 State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan Okamoto, Shohei J Transp Health HotM2 article or Protocol INTRODUCTION: The Japanese government declared a state of emergency (SoE) to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the requirements of these SoE were less stringent than those in other nations. It has not been assessed whether soft containment policies were sufficiently effective in the promotion of social distancing or the reduction of human contact. METHODS: Mobility changes across different travel destinations, such as, (a) retail and recreation spaces; (b) supermarkets and pharmacies; (c) parks; (d) public transportation; (e) workplaces; and (f) residential areas, were analysed using the Google mobility index to assess social distancing behaviour in all Japanese prefectures between 15 February 2020 and 21 September 2021. The changes were evaluated through the utilisation of an interrupted time-series analysis after adjustment for seasonality and various prefecture-specific fixed-effects, and distinguishment of potential heterogeneity across multiple SoEs and the time that had passed after the declaration. RESULTS: The mobility index for retail and recreation exhibited an immediate decline of 7.94 percent-points (95%CI: −8.77 to −7.12) after the declaration of the SoE, and a further decline after the initial period (beta: −1.27 95%CI: −1.43 to −1.11). However, it gradually increased by 0.03 percent-points (95%CI: 0.02–0.03). This trend was similar for mobility in other places. Among the four SoEs, the overall decline in human mobility outside the home was the least significant in the third and fourth SoE, which suggests that people were less compliant with social distancing measures during these periods. CONCLUSIONS: Although government responses to the pandemic may aid the controlling of human mobility outside the home, their effectiveness may decrease if these interventions are repeated and enforced for extended periods. A combination of these with other measures (i.e. risk-communication strategies) would enable even mild containment and closure policies to effectively curb the spread of the virus. Elsevier Ltd. 2022-09 2022-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9167861/ /pubmed/35694018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2022.101405 Text en © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | HotM2 article or Protocol Okamoto, Shohei State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan |
title | State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan |
title_full | State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan |
title_fullStr | State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan |
title_full_unstemmed | State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan |
title_short | State of emergency and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan |
title_sort | state of emergency and human mobility during the covid-19 pandemic in japan |
topic | HotM2 article or Protocol |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9167861/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35694018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2022.101405 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT okamotoshohei stateofemergencyandhumanmobilityduringthecovid19pandemicinjapan |