Human mobility and infection from Covid-19 in the Osaka metropolitan area

Abstract

Controlling human mobility is thought to be an effective measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to clarify the human mobility types that impacted the number of COVID-19 cases during the medium-term COVID-19 pandemic in the Osaka metropolitan area. The method used in this study was analysis of the statistical relationship between human mobility changes and the total number of COVID-19 cases after two weeks. In conclusion, the results indicate that it is essential to control the human mobility of groceries/pharmacies to between −5 and 5% and that of parks to more than −20%. The most significant finding for urban sustainability is that urban transit was not found to be a source of infection. Hence governments in cities around the world may be able to encourage communities to return to transit mobility, if they are able to follow the kind of hygiene processes conducted in Osaka.

Human Mobility and Medical Costs of Lifestyle-related Diseases during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study in Japan

“…The results supported the analysis in the case of a suburban city in the Osaka metropolitan area (Kato and Matsushita, 2021). In the Osaka metropolitan prefectures, transit stations had little correlation with the number of infections (Kato and Takizawa, 2022b). These results suggest that encouraging walking and public transit use decreased medical costs in metropolitan prefectures during the pandemic.…”

Human Mobility and Medical Costs of Lifestyle-related Diseases during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, the human mobility of public transit decreased after November 2020. In the Osaka metropolitan prefectures, it was found that the human mobility of transit station had little correlation with the number of infected cases [33]. These results suggest that encouraging walking and public transit would reduce medical costs in metropolitan prefectures during the pandemic.…”

Changes in mobility amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Sapporo City, Japan: An investigation through the relationship between spatiotemporal population density and urban facilities

“…The authors also declared groceries and pharmacies were the sources of infection, but the transit station was not. Inconsistent with Kato and Takizawa, 2022 , Steiger et al, 2021 argued that the increase in mobility at groceries and pharmacies correlated to the low newly reported cases. Further, their study also reported mobility at retail and recreational areas or workplaces positively affected the rise of infection.…”

“…Meanwhile, studies by Lee et al, 2021 , Tribby and Hartmann, 2021 indicated green areas and parks negatively related to the low infected case in the U.S. and England. By contrast, Kato and Takizawa (2022) claimed that visits to parks were the determinant of the high risk. The authors also declared groceries and pharmacies were the sources of infection, but the transit station was not.…”