An Investigation of Face Mask Use with Busking Videos on YouTube during COVID-19: a Case Study in South Korea

Wearing face mask is an effective measure to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections and control its transmission, thus its usage survey is important for better policy decision to mitigate the epidemic spread. Current existing worldwide surveys are mostly self-reported, whose accuracies are hard to guaranteed, and may exaggerate the percentage of face mask wearing. Therefore, we collected busking videos with a large amount on YouTube from December 2019 to December 2020, mainly from South Korea, and reported an objective investigation of face mask use in the crowds outdoor. It is found that the face mask wearing rate has an obvious positive correlation with effective reproductive number (Rt) in the South Korea, which indicates that the people in South Korea kept sensitive to the COVID-19 epidemic. The face mask wearing rate in South Korea is higher than some other countries, and two rate droppings in June and September also corresponds to the temporary remission in 2020. This study shows significant potentials to utilize public big video data to make an accurate worldwide survey of face mask use with the support of deep learning technology.