Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the main discussed topic worldwide in 2020 and at the beginning of the Italian epidemic, scientists tried to understand the virus diffusion and the epidemic curve of positive cases with controversial findings and numbers Objectives: In this paper, a data analytics study on the diffusion of COVID-19 in Lombardy Region and Campania Region is developed in order to identify the driver that sparked the second wave in Italy Methods: Starting from all the available official data collected about the diffusion of COVID-19, we analyzed Google mobility data, school data and infection data for two big regions in Italy: Lombardy Region and Campania Region, which adopted two different approaches in opening and closing schools To reinforce our findings, we also extended the analysis to the Emilia Romagna Region Results: The paper shows how different policies adopted in school opening/closing may have had an impact on the COVID-19 spread, while other factors related to citizen mobility did not affect the second Italian wave Conclusions: The paper shows that a clear correlation exists between the school contagion and the subsequent temporal overall contagion in a geographical area Moreover, it is clear that highly populated provinces have the greatest spread of the virus
How Schools Affected the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Data Analysis for Lombardy Region, Campania Region, and Emilia Region