An expert panel made 10 suggestions for public behavior during the Golden Week holidays, including virtual trips, after determining that the government’s social distancing goal to contain the coronavirus outbreak was not being met.

The proposals, mainly covering potential hotspots, such as parks, supermarkets and hospitals, were released on April 22 after the government panel analyzed data on pedestrian traffic over the two weeks since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency in seven prefectures.

That declaration has since been extended to cover the entire nation.

After the panel meeting, Hiroshi Nishiura, a professor of theoretical epidemiology at Hokkaido University who sits on the panel, said the public has fallen short of the government’s target of reducing person-to-person contact by 80 percent to prevent the spread of infections.

Abe called for greater cooperation from the public at a meeting of Cabinet ministers dealing with the new coronavirus outbreak.

“I hope everyone will once again review their daily activities,” Abe said, touching upon the panel’s 10 suggestions.

The panel recommended that family members use the internet to communicate rather than actually travel to their hometowns over Golden Week. The internet was also suggested as a way to hold drinking parties.

It also recommended the government ask consumers to wash their hands before and after shopping at supermarkets and retail outlets, or to have such stores impose entry restrictions when they become crowded.

In addition, the panel said that only one member of each household should shop at supermarkets to reduce congestion. It also suggested that families shop online, buy takeout meals or have meals delivered to their homes.

The experts’ panel also had proposals for ensuring the medical care system does not collapse under a flood of COVID-19 patients, as well as measures to secure the needed personnel and reagents for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to check for coronavirus infections.

To prop up the medical care system, the panel recommended that all prefectures follow the examples of Tokyo and Osaka in designating certain medical institutions to focus on treating patients with severe symptoms linked to COVID-19.

In prefectures facing possible shortages of hospital beds, the panel recommended that medical institutions consider postponing scheduled hospitalizations and surgeries of patients.

It also recommended setting up temporary facilities in auditoriums and using all available space within the medical institutions.

The panel found shortages not only in personnel capable of conducting PCR tests but also among those working at phone consultation centers that advise possibly infected individuals on where to go for a PCR test.

According to the Google analysis used by the panel, the number of people at major railway stations within Tokyo fell between 69 and 87 percent after the state of emergency declaration

But the 80-percent reduction target was still being missed.

In fact, the panel said supermarkets and parks were often congested during weekends at rates higher than before Abe’s declaration.

Although the number of people out and about in the Tokyo metropolitan area has dropped, the Google analysis found a greater use of parks mainly in the Tohoku region of northern Honshu.

“In order to move toward an early lifting of the state of emergency, now is a very important period,” Abe said.

But the panel indicated that even if the state of emergency is lifted, Japan would still need to refrain from holding events involving large groups to prevent cluster infections that could trigger a second wave of COVID-19 cases.

After the panel meeting, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the state minister for economic revitalization who is tasked with dealing with the novel coronavirus crisis, said any decision on lifting the state of emergency would have to await another analysis by the panel around May 6, which is the current deadline for the declaration.

(This article was compiled from reports by Ryutaro Abe, Naoyuki Himeno, Shuichi Doi and Akiyoshi Abe.)