How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Affect Population Mobility in Taiwan?

Shih-Feng Liu; Hui-Chuan Chang; Jui-Fang Liu; Ho-Chang Kuo

doi:10.3390/ijerph191710559

How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Affect Population Mobility in Taiwan?

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 24;19(17):10559. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710559.

Authors

Shih-Feng Liu^{1

2

3}, Hui-Chuan Chang¹, Jui-Fang Liu^{4

5}, Ho-Chang Kuo^{1

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Respiratory Therapy, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan.
² Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan.
³ College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Respiratory Care, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Chiayi 600, Taiwan.
⁵ Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion Research Center, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Chiayi 600, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Paediatrics and Kawasaki Disease Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) impairs the free movement of human beings. The study aims to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected population mobility.

Methods: The study obtained Google COVID-19 population mobility report and e Taiwan COVID-19 pandemic information from Our World in Data.

Results: During the Alpha wave, transit decreased the most, with an average difference of >50%, followed by parks, workplaces, groceries, and pharmacies. During the Omicron wave, the average population flow in parks and transit decreased by about 20%. During the pre-existing wave, the average population visits of transit decreased by 10% at the most, followed by parks and workplaces. The peak of daily new confirmed cases per million (7-day rolling average) was 25.02, 6.39, and 0.81 for Alpha, Omicron, and the pre-existing wave, respectively. Daily new confirmed cases per million people correlated with the change in population visits of various places (all p < 0.001). The reproduction rate (7-day rolling average) correlated with the change of population visits of most places, except retail and recreation. We conclude the Alpha variant affected more individuals than Omicron and pre-existing type. Furthermore, changes in population visits in transit were most impacted. This change was consistent with daily new confirmed cases per million people and reproduction rate (7-day rolling average).

Conclusion: The Alpha variant affected more individuals than the Omicron and pre-existing types. Furthermore, changes in population visits in transit locations were most impacted. This change was consistent with the daily new number of confirmed cases per million people and the 7-day rolling average reproduction rate.

Keywords: Alpha; COVID-19; Omicron; Taiwan; pandemic; population mobility.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Humans
Pandemics*
SARS-CoV-2
Taiwan / epidemiology

Supplementary concepts

SARS-CoV-2 variants

Grants and funding

This study received funding from the following grants CORPG8M0091 and CMRPG8L1241 from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan. Although these institutes provided financial support, they had no influence on the way in which we collected, analyzed, or interpreted the data or wrote this manuscript.