Japan on Thursday reported 59,885 new coronavirus cases, down 19,469 from Wednesday. Tokyo reported 5,061 new cases, down 873 from Wednesday.
The number of infected people hospitalized with severe symptoms in Tokyo was 34, unchanged from Wednesday, health officials said. The nationwide figure was 585, down 28 from Wednesday.
The number of coronavirus-related deaths reported nationwide was 410.
© Japan Today
18 Comments
Aly Rustom
The number of coronavirus-related deaths reported nationwide was 410.
Does anyone know what the highest number of deaths in one 1 day is?
Moderator
503, reported on January 14.
Fredrik
Infections down a lot, while deaths stay high. Not a good sign. Fewer infected people would mean that the deaths by other causes would be less likely to be infected as well, thus fewer deaths with COVID.
Raw Beer
There tends to be a delay (about 2 weeks?) between infection rate and death rate, so deaths should come down soon.
And it also depends on how they define "coronavirus-related deaths"...
Roy Sophveason
They don't, deaths are coming down slowly, too. Because day-on comparisons are fluctuating too much to be useful indicators I calculated the 7-day rolling average (data source: MLHW), here's the last 14 days (apologies for the crude formatting):
Death numbers don't fall as rapidly as infection numbers, but they are clearly on the downward trend as well.
Sidenote: The MLHW has all sorts of data noone bothers much to look at. For example, it shows that the most confirmed infection cases in the last seven days happened to the youngest age bracket, children under the age of 10, more than all 70+, 80+, 90+ combined. Since Japan does only test symptomatic cases now, this is a bit worrysome and suggests that infections are currently rampant in schools and kindergartens.
Seigi
Numbers number numbers....
ian
This one's probably not an antivaxer.
Can't be sure of course.
(Sorry for dragging you into this but I felt compelled to make another guess in the interest of fairness)
Roy Sophveason
"International Guidelines for Certification and Classification (Coding) of COVID-19 as Cause of Death"
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/classification/icd/covid-19/guidelines-cause-of-death-covid-19-20200420-en.pdf
It's only 14 pages. Happy reading.
Roy Sophveason
... has been codifying how to do death certificates for decades, for all countries. This is important because not only does it allow country-on-country comparisons, but also for insurance and other legal reasons.
That is, naturally, for the medical professional to decide. Note that they can very well also note COVID-19, but as "other significant condition contributing to death", at which point it will not be counted as "Covid death".
Open a window, you're becoming a bit hysterical there.
Roy Sophveason
I agree to some extent, but there's another side to the coin. Rampant miscommunication by the media and even governments during the pandemic (my biggest gripe with the last three years) has shown us what happens if you over-communicate details. Every single datapoint has been misconstrued and twisted out of shape to the point where it only serves as arguments in hysterical online shouting matches.
I disagree. We are (supposedly) adults and can make rational decisions without resorting to primal instincts. The data is there if you seek it, numbers are not scary (except in Japan when they contain "4" and "13"), and then you can make an informed decision.
Wilkins King
Perhaps the 8th wave is nearing the end of it's cycle. Well done Japan.
Sanjinosebleed
Vaccines and masks working so well…excepts 4 weeks ago and 4 months ago BUT now the falling numbers are due to the masks and the vaccines not the simple fact that natural immunity to the current strain has started to take effect!
wolfshine
It's been "nearing the end of it's cycle" since November.
Roy Sophveason
Why can't it be both? Binary thinking takes us nowhere, neither science nor medicine nor nature works that way.
Roy Sophveason
I don't know where you get that from, some may actually have said that I'm sure. But with individual day-on comparisons (again, useless) smoothed out over a rolling average, in November there was not a single day when infections went down. The current wave peaked just two weeks ago, luckily it's been in steep decline since then.