The number of travel-associated COVID-19 cases across the nation increased around threefold, with cases linked to tourism rising nearly sevenfold, after the government began a subsidy program aimed at promoting domestic tourism in July, a recent study found.
"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," Kyoto University researchers Hiroshi Nishiura and Asami Anzai said in the study, published last Thursday in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.
Nishiura, who has acted as an adviser to the government's pandemic response, was dubbed by the media as "Uncle 80%" for his advice that people reduce their social interactions by that amount.