Japan’s government may stop travel subsidies meant to boost regional economies and help hotels and airlines as concern grows that the tourism campaign may spread the coronavirus amid a fresh wave of infections, Nippon TV’s NEWS24 reported.
Any decisions to halt the “Go To Travel” campaign would represent a U-turn by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who until now has defended the subsidies as necessary to boost an economy hurt by a pandemic that has kept people at home.
Wary of growing public concern, Suga’s administration is considering stopping the campaign for two months at year end and into the New Year, NEWS24 reported, citing unidentified sources.
Japan was among the first nations to provide incentive for domestic travel saying it was needed to stop many small businesses in the hospitality sector from going bust due to the lack of customers as a result of the virus scare. This was later adopted by few other countries as well.
A report this week from researchers at the University of Tokyo and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found a higher incidence of COVID-19 symptoms among people participating in the travel campaign compared with the general public.
High fever was reported by 4.8% of users of the Go To Travel campaign compared with 3.7% for non-users, according to a preprint of a study that examined data from an internet survey of more than 25,000 adults. Participants also had higher rates of throat pain, cough, headache, and a loss of the sense of taste or smell.
Infection rates in Japan have reached new highs, with the capital Tokyo on Thursday recording more than 600 new daily infections for the first time since the pandemic began. Even so, the nation has weathered the pandemic better than most major economies, with more than 165,000 cases and 2,417 fatalities. (Reuters)