Relationship between user behaviors and number of COVID-19 positives interpreted from Twitter data #15

Date: 2021.12.21
Researcher: Masashi Toyoda
Organization: Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo

Analysis of risk behavior-related Tweets

・Tweets related to actions of high infection risk were extracted and compared with positive COVID-19 cases. Tweets including the following keywords were subject to analysis:
　-Drinking session, End-of-year Party, Christmas Party, New Year Party (Respectively 飲み会、忘年会、クリスマスパーティ、新年会 in Japanese)
　-Karaoke (カラオケ in Japanese)
　-Fitness center (ジム in Japanese)
　-Hanami (“Flower-viewing”, 花見 in Japanese)
　-Barbecue (バーベキュー in Japanese)
・The situations within Tokyo and Osaka regions were compared with each other, using location information from Twitter user profiles.

Summary

・The number of excursion-related tweets nationwide is increasing since December.
　-Tweets related to drinking session and End-of-year party is continuing to increase; caution is advised.
　-Tweets related to Karaoke was in an increase since December, but has shown a decrease last week (details below)
・Effects of news on the Omicron variant.
　-On December 16th, the news of a close contact of the omicron variant going to a soccer stadium went viral on Twitter.
　-Tweets related to drinking session increased compared to last week, but were in decrease compared to last week as of December 18th (Sat).
　-Tweets related to End-of-year session increased compared to last week, but the rate of increase was lessened compared to last week as of December 18th (Sat).
　-Tweets related to Karaoke decreased rapidly compared to last week; the shape of the peak changed as well.