The relationship between fever rate and telework implementation as a social distancing measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

Kawashima, Takayuki; Nomura, Shuhei; Tanoue, Yuta; Yoneoka, Daisuke; Eguchi, Akifumi; Shi, Shoi; Miyata, Hiroaki

Abstract Objectives On March 28, the Japanese government decided on the "Basic Policies for Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Control", and called on the public to thoroughly implement social distance measures (i.e. behavioral restrictions to limit the frequency and intensity of human contact), especially telework. Methods We used population-level questionnaire data from a social networking service (SNS) with 275,560 respondents from March 5 to April 6 to evaluate the relationship between telework implementation and the presence of a fever (body temperature above 37.5°C) within one month as a surrogate indicator of COVID-19 infection, by occupation type and age group. Results Among company employees, a statistical significance was identified in the 15–29 and 30–59 age groups, showing higher fever rates in the non-teleworker group (for 15–29 age group, non-teleworkers: 7.64%; teleworkers: 6.45%; p=0.02; for 30–59 age group, non-teleworkers: 3.46%; teleworkers: 3.14%; p=0.02). Conclusions Telework remains a controversial topic in Japan as the government called for emergency measures. While caution is warranted in interpreting our findings because our data is limited to the voluntary SNS users, they will be essential to push forward with more measures to promote social distancing measures in the midst of Japan's current tense political climate.