TOKYO, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases related to travel increased by nearly seven times in Japan after the government carried out a subsidy program aimed at promoting domestic tourism in July, a recent study revealed.
In the study, which was published Thursday in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, the researchers compared the daily number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 prior to and after the "Go To Travel" campaign.
"Although the second epidemic wave in Japan had begun to decline by mid-August, enhanced domestic tourism may have contributed to increasing travel-associated COVID-19 cases," said Kyoto University researchers Hiroshi Nishiura and Asami Anzai who led the study.
The "Go To Travel" campaign, launched on July 22 last year, effectively covered half a traveler's expenses. It was launched in order to support the tourism industry severely hit by the pandemic.
The government suspended the campaign nationwide in late December last year amid a sharp resurgence of infections. However, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was reluctant to change course until the last minute.
The researchers analyzed travel movements of around 4,000 people from 24 of Japan's prefectures who contracted the coronavirus epidemic between May and August last year, according to the study.
A total of 817 had crossed prefectural borders or had come into contact with those who were infected with the virus, the study said.
After comparing the number of new COVID-19 cases between June 22 and July 21 in 2020 and that after the domestic travel promotion program was implemented, the study found that the number of travel-associated daily infections in the country increased around threefold after the start of the campaign.
Moreover, in terms of tourism-related COVID-19 infections, as opposed to those related to business trips, the number increased by a maximum 6.8 times.
"It is natural that enhancing human mobility across wider geographic areas would facilitate additional contact" and spread the COVID-19 virus, the study said. Enditem
