Has the 'Go To Travel' Campaign Spread COVID-19 in Japan? Applicability of Analytics in Response to Global Crisis Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

In the summer of 2020, the Japanese government carried out a new campaign called 'Go To Travel', which some believe has spread COVID-19 in Japan. This study examines the impact of the newly launched governmental campaign on the spread of COVID-19. Data for this study was collected from open data that is published daily by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the 41 days during the campaign period were compared with the 41 days that followed. The results show that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 did not change statistically, and it was determined that the Go To Travel Campaign could not be said to have spread the spread of COVID-19. Next, we propose a model for predicting the number of deaths that is created from the data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare from February 2020 to the end of February 2021. This model is straightforward, as it uses publicly available data from professional organisations. We believe that it can be used by medical institutions and many organisations like local governments.