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© Thomson Reuters 2020.Tokyo reports 107 new coronavirus cases on Thursday
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© Thomson Reuters 2020.
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Christopher Glen
"Despite more cases in Tokyo, Japan, with about 19,000 cases"
Everyone knows this is not the real number. But is COVID-19 worth the excessive hysteria it's getting? No.
Common-sense, obviously avoiding nightlife districts in Tokyo, hand-washing etc, is enough.
Aly Rustom
If I'm not mistaken, wasn't it around a hundred a day back then? Or is my memory serving me wrong? I guess we just have to wait and see if Tokyo starts recording 100 or so cases every day or if Thursday was just an outlier.
TigersTokyoDome
This is what happens by avoiding testing and saying numbers aren't important. They are avoiding testing and making it very difficult even if you actively want to test. The current cost for a PCR test in Tokyo is Y33,000. They are not covered under health insurance.
Disagree with the first post. You can multiply these numbers by 10.
Ask the survivors who have lasting damage to their lungs and health. Ask the families of all of those who died. There is no vaccine, and we do not have antibodies to this virus.
George Townes
Knuckle-head behavior by millennials. They seem to care less if they get infected because they can recover, but just think about who you might be infecting with your reckless behavior. Stupid is as stupid does.
Christopher Glen
"Ask the survivors who have lasting damage to their lungs and health. Ask the families of all of those who died."
Ask the jobless, ask the divorced families, ask the victims of domestic abuse, as a result of enforced lockdowns. Are not these issues equally important?
Aly Rustom
yes. I agree. that's also what they are saying in the US, Brazil and other countries. And they are still testing more than we are here.
I agree.
TigersTokyoDome
And don't believe this governments lies about Kabukicho. It's an easy scapegoat with a moral point of view.
Do we seriously believe that only hostess and host clubs are attracting these new cases? Of course not. Normal bars and pubs and izakaya are just as likely to pass the virus. As well as our commute.
They allowed a couple of businessmen to bring Covid-19 from Wuhan city straight back home without strict quarantine, but they like to preach about Kabukicho and irresponsibility..
TigersTokyoDome
Chris Glen, if you are dead what is the point of economical survival? I have listened to horrific stories of Covid-19 survivors who struggle to walk to the shops.
Economic survival means nothing if, God forbid, you are on a ventilator in a hospital.
My job will probably go by the end of the year. But I would prefer not to catch this virus for which we have no vaccine and no antibodies. I hate to say it but I'd rather be unemployed.
Bernard Marx
I'd rather risk the virus any day. Being unemployed is a no-no for me, as I have no savings to fall back on. I'd rather get sick and lay in hospital watching TV than be homeless.
cleo
There will be new jobs. There can be new partnerships.
More hope than if you're dealing with lifelong lung scarring, kidney failure, the after effects of a stroke...not to mention the total lack of any hope if you're dead.
So no, being jobless and/or divorced, while bad enough, is not as important as having severely compromised health or being dead.
And it doesn't matter that having you lying in that hospital bed puts at risk all the medical staff who have to care for you, as well as their families?
there's also no guarantee you'd be watching TV. You could be in an induced coma on a ventilator, working up to being a lifelong invalid, too tired to ever get a job again.
Invalid CSRFx2
Fighto!
Living paycheck to paycheck in a foreign country, with nothing put away for emergencies and unforseen events is rather foolhardy. It makes life more dangerous for the locals in times like this.
Bernard Marx
Ya think? Okay, you want to step in and ask my boss for a raise for me, or negotiate with my student loans company for my about repayments? At least I don't have a family to worry about.
Bernard Marx
I would just commit suicide in that case. Life simply wouldn't be worth living. Suicide is better than being unemployed and homeless.
ohara
Indeed, its guaranteed the real number is at least 1000.
Paul14
And yet apparently they're now allowing people to fly into Japan from the USA. Europe has just banned all flights from there.
Kitchener Leslie
Did someone forget to turn the Rainbow Bridge lights to red? How could this have happened?!!
Tom
The article mentions increased testing, but as usual the number of tests performed is missing. What are we to gain from this arbitrary number?
PerformingMonkey
And 769 new cases in New York yesterday.
Where would you rather be right now?
Do the hustle
Well, with between 60 and 100 new cases daily perhaps Japan should stop boasting about how they missed the major outbreaks like Europe had. I fear the worst is yet to come.
Mirai Hayashi
and....we're back to 3 digits.....this number can easily jump higher....not the time to be opening up theme parks and partying.
Vince Black
And the number of deaths? Hysteria again, Cleos post takes the prize for most dramatic.
rainyday
I'm a little confused here, if there were over 100 cases in Tokyo today then that is pretty much the same ballpark as what it was in March.
If they need to declare an emergency to shut these damn nightclubs down then they should get on with that NOW. Its idiotic for the whole country to be exposed to a potential outbreak just so some 20 somethings can go out and party.
Christopher Glen
“Chris Glen, if you are dead what is the point of economical survival? I have listened to horrific stories of Covid-19 survivors who struggle to walk to the shops.”
There is no funding for the hospitals, if we run out of money due to prolonged shut downs.
Cancer patients, at least in the UK, are getting their treatment put on the back burner if favour of Corona patients.
I used to think as you do, and woke up in a cold sweat at the idea of going out.
But then I stopped smelling the bs, and started smelling the coffee.
Christopher Glen
“And the number of deaths? Hysteria again”
Well, the issue has been overblown a bit
The Avenger
Japan Times March 06, 2020
Coronavirus testing now covered by Japan's national insurance
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/06/national/science-health/covid-19-tests-japan-national-insurance/#.Xv2Vh-fgp1s
https://japantoday.com/category/national/coronavirus-testing-to-be-covered-by-national-health-insurance
Christopher Glen
We are doomed. It’s the end! Panic everyone. Panic
Objective
Masks will continue to be a big help to keep hospitals at a manageable level. This is what many people believe and there is science to back it up.
But, will we be hypocritical when a vaccine is found and we stop wearing masks? Will there be blood on our hands for the annual thousands of influenza deaths? A transmissible sickness (which there is a vaccine for) that kills across a broader age spectrum than Covid.
Humans have a hard time to calculate acceptable risk. People dislike Suga but he is making decisions based on more than just the disease. You have to look at the overall long-term health of the nation.
Christopher Glen
A bit of perspective. One of a few that turned me away from the panicky tendencies embodied in many
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/23/lockdown-saved-no-lives-may-have-cost-nobel-prize-winner-believes/amp/
Christopher Glen
“But, will we be hypocritical when a vaccine is found and we stop wearing masks? Will there be blood on our hands for the annual thousands of influenza deaths? A transmissible sickness (which there is a vaccine for) that kills across a broader age spectrum than Covid.”
Excellent point
TigersTokyoDome
Avenger, the PCR is only covered if you are sick with a high fever and a dubious x-ray. If not you won't get as far as a PCR test. The point is if you actively want to take a test you will have to fork out Y33,000. So anyone who is asymptomatic and Covid positive will not know that because they won't pass the national health symptoms checks.
Christopher Glen
We are all doomed....or we avoid rock concerts, wash our hands and get on with life
Tom
Surely the virus does not only exist in certain districts of Tokyo between 10 pm and 5 am. But it has become the narrative due to the targeted testing in these places. As long PCR is not subsidized and those to be tested are decided essentially by the central government, there is some reason to be skeptical.
Anyways, from now on I think it is going to be a balance of what can stay open and what will have to close again until a working vaccine is distributed. Highly doubt that Koike is going to shut down everything again even if things worsen significantly. Hoping for more transparency (of which there is almost none atm) so I could at least make informed decisions myself. I'd rather 'know' than 'believe'.
wanderlust
Nothing from Mayor Koike - too busy with re-election.
Jim
Totally agree with you! If foreigners are living in Japan from paycheck to paycheck without any savings then they are really in the wrong country! You’ll be better off back in your home country! What’s the use of living in a foreign country if you can’t save up!
ListenTheTruth
More nations are seemingly prepared to “live” with COVID-19. Yet, people MUST apply the New Life in order for that to be successful, yet, well, for some old habits dies hard. Japan, with bowing, automatic doors, an established mask culture and more was seemingly well positioned in the first place, BUT, well, how are host/hostess clubs essential? @Bernard, you need to go back to the UK.
Tom Young
We were all bullet-proof once upon a time. Problem is, Covid-19 is a real bullet that the young will not survive.
Bernard Marx
How so? Not in my case.
n1k1
60% of all the cases in the world were reported last month. The Tokyo mask/hygiene wall still holds.
James
The state of emergency was only supposed to slow down the rate of infections while the country got more beds and respirators ready. So this situation was predictable and was expected.
It will likely only get worse now that some government officials have stopped wearing masks and have said it has been long enough since the end of the state of emergency.
Every day I am seeing more and more people shopping and moving around with no face mask so in response I now wear a face shield where ever I go as It actually offers me some protection from those people who are not wearing masks at all.
Yes I do understand that a face shield has not been proven to help prevent the spread of corona if you already have it. but it does offer around 95% protection from catching corona if you don't have it, compared to 0% protection from wearing a face mask due to your eyes being exposed to unmasked breathers.
Vinke
Aly Rustom
I've kept a diary, by taking stats directlyfrom the Johns Hopkins site (https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6). Numbers taken once a day, roughly at the same time of the day.
Here are the numbers for March + April:
23.03.2020 , 1101 cases (+15 to previous day)
24.03.2020, 1190 (+89)
25.03.2020 , 1193 (+3)
26.03.2020, 1313 (+120)
27.03.2020, 1399 (+86)
28.03.2020, 1499 (+100)
29.03.2020, 1693 (+194)
30.03.2020, 1866 (+173)
31.03.2020, 1953 (+87)
01.04.2020, 2229 (+276)
02.04.2020, 2384 (+160 or +206 - the data on 01.04. was suddenly changed on the page)
03.04.2020, 2617 (+233)
04.04.2020, 2935 (+318)
05.04.2020, 3139 (+204)
06.04.2020, 3654 (+515)
07.04.2020, 3906 (+252)
08.04.2020, 4257 (+351)
09.04.2020, 4667 (+410)
10.04.2020, 4979 (+312)
11.04.2020, 6005 (+1026)
12.04.2020, 6748 (+743)
13.04.2020, 7370 (+622)
14.04.2020, 7645 (+275)
15.04.2020, 8100 (+455)
16.04.2020, 8626 (+526)
17.04.2020, 9231 (+605)
18.04.2020, 9787 (+556)
19.04.2020, 10296 (+509)
20.04.2020, 10797 (+501)
21.04.2020, 11135 (+338)
22.04.2020, 11512 (+377)
23.04.2020, 11950 (+438)
24.04.2020, 12368 (+418)
25.04.2020 - (forgot to check)
26.04.2020, 13231 (+863)
27.04.2020, 13441 (+210 )
28.04.2020 , 13614 (+173 )
29.04.2020, 13736 (+122)
30.04.2020, 13895 (+159)
blahblah222
The mask/hygiene wall won't hold for much longer.
This month even a lot of big companies are stopping WFH and in-person large meetings are fully resuming. The government/media message is also that of the government having completely contained covid, and mask wearing is essentially discouraged by the top government official leading the response.
But 200-300 cases will likely be the max reported case in Tokyo no matter what, since every day only 2000 tests is allowed to be conducted, and 10%-15% positive rate would likely be the maximum even in an epidemic area.
carpslidy
Its unfortunate the numbers are increasing but it's a similar situation around the world.
Hopefully the medical world has become better able to fight the virus and deaths won't increase in 2/3 weeks.
Christopher Glen
The best info I have is maybe. Supporting link?
“but it does offer around 95% protection from catching corona if you don't have it, compared to 0% protection from wearing a face mask due to your eyes being exposed to unmasked breathers.”
Christopher Glen
“Problem is, Covid-19 is a real bullet that the young will not survive”
With the economic consequences of the shutdowns, certainly.
Sh1mon M4sada
@klausdorf
The numbers are meaningless. Travel insurance will reflect this eventually.
...Osaka tested 40 thousand, but only 22 is confirmed negative, what does that mean? It means the 1,800 postive is just a figure. So is the Tokyo figure. If you have young kids, keep them safe!
i@n
So it isn't true that the government is keeping the number of tests low to keep cases low?
rgcivilian1
re: More than 10.7 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and over 515,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Meanwhile college students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, have been throwing parties where they invite people infected with the coronavirus and gamble on who comes down with the illness first. My recommendation is forget that and just climb the tallest building and jump to see who can get to the ground first. Unbelievable. Sad to see this at any college around the world, but if this is the best these kids can think of then we are truly doomed. Poor parents..
Mark
COVID - 19 never gone away, people will continue to get infected, and ONLY the strong will survive until we have a vaccine.
i@n
Great post @James thanks!
I have only been wearing facemasks still till now, yes, to protect the others.
If more and more people will go around without masks then we indeed need to do something to protect ourselves more.
Place where I live still very few who do not wear masks but I'll be more aware now and consider wearing a face shield. I always have one with me, actually two, in the backpack I use every workday.
Mark
Did anyone in the right state of mind think that the infection rate was going to remain the same or drop after opening up???
Based on what we all watched in the last 5 months This Virus spreads faster than any other viruses, and if people continue to relax & drop their guards then we are in for a very rough influenza season.
carpslidy
Tokyo
Mar. 500 cases Apr100 deaths .20%
Apr. 2800 case May.200 deaths. 7%
May. 1400 cases June 25 deaths2%
June 1000 cases
Presuming deaths occur around a month after infection
The death rate for confirmed cases has gone from 20% down to under 2% and presumably will fall again in june. 100 cases in July isn't the same as 100 cases in march or may.
Oxycodin
See what happens when we all think we are all out of the woods?? let alone open economy to everyone and now we have a huge influx of infections comming our way. But bare in mind its not our fault. this was a china man made diaster that could of been prevented and many want to forget where the virus orgininated. Yes it make no diffrence to make the blame on China but the reality is we are face with this highly contagious virus and there is probably not enough hospital for CCP virus patiens. I was predicting that the numbers would shoot up but still 100 confirmed cases is still considered low compared to other nations who test wildly. Please stay home and be safe.
Luddite
The average age of those newly diagnosed has dropped, it’s those in their late teens who are the new victims. Young people think they are invincible.
smithinjapan
"...As infections surpass the city government's initial target, two weeks into its final phase of loosening of virus curbs, officials have repeatedly said they see no need to declare a new state of emergency."
Of course not -- there's an election in two days. Guaranteed the day after they start talking about emergencies again, because it's only a year from the postponed Olympics and already there's a lot of talk of cancelling, so they'll get serious all of the sudden again. Suga will put on his mask again and hand Koike her diaper to cover her face with, but they won't talk about closing companies down -- only social life again. Schools? Nope... they'll say schools need not be closed down except in cases with infections. The number was 100 today, tomorrow it will be 120 and no problem still. And in a few weeks, when it may well be in the thousands if they are even bothering to test and/or report numbers, they'll say there is no way they could have known... there is no precedent (the rest of the world doesn't exist), etc. They cannot be responsible. It's the fault of local governments; they're going to form panels to think about what to do, then form panels to think about acting before forming a special panel to assign people to think about acting a little more. They'll say there's no way the Olympics can be delayed, and that suddenly it's okay again. Rinse... repeat.
WilliB
"Cases" is irrelevant. Nobody knows the real number anyway. What counts is the death rate and the availability of ICUs. As far as I can see, there is no problem there. If there was, we would hear about it non-stop.
smithinjapan
WilliB: "As far as I can see"
That's the thing, Willi... you only see what they let you. I mean, heaven forbid you remember when they were saying hospitals here were ALREADY panicking before it hit because they wouldn't be able to handle it, or maybe you missed the guy apologizing for taking in Corona patients before and it spreading in the hospital as a result, and admitting he should have turned the patients down (hence, you're not about to hear of full hospitals when you've got none accepting patients).
Saitou Yuu
Tokyo governor under election campaign and Japanese Govt have ignored even themselves' numerical standard about Covid-19 to prioritize economy policy.
Japan's prime minister Abe still avoids explanation or accountability about many issue toward people, on the other hand he had used time for interview with extreme-rightists' magazine.
mmwkdw
I hope they still keep posting the infection counts and identifying the hot-spots. Ignorance is not Bliss in the case of COVID.
Akula
I guess if I was in Tokyo right now I might be giving the drinking spots a miss, but other than that, Japan has around 1000 active cases in a population of 126 million. Perspective people.
1glenn
107 new cases in Tokyo.
1,793 new cases in Los Angeles County yesterday. The data for Thursday not yet available.
Stuart Ballantyne
it looks like the testing has been ramped up about 500%, so higher numbers are definitely expected. I was sent this website below which shows the data very clearly, the clearest I’ve seen up until now.
Hopefully some flexibility will be shown and some rules will be set in place like essential traveling etc, as to contain the virus within prefectures/regions.
https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html
Christopher Glen
“guess if I was in Tokyo right now I might be giving the drinking spots a miss, but other than that, Japan has around 1000 active cases in a population of 126 million. Perspective people.”
The number is certainly more, but I’m not getting all flustered like the doomsayers on this page.
Christopher Glen
“The average age of those newly diagnosed has dropped, it’s those in their late teens who are the new victims. Young people think they are invincible.”
Supporting link?
egads man!
At least it's not 10,000 new cases in a day.
Redtail Swift
HEY HEY! We are the government of Japan. We say what the truth is. You just go to work as you were told. This is not up for debate.
The number could be a 1,000 per day and it would not matter to these governments.
All this is because the governments can't tell you one thing. There is no cure! The world is at it's end. The super rich and affluent have been sent invitations. They are moving to an undisclosed location.
The rest of us need to keep the lights on for them. We need to mask their escape. It will be impossible to clean up the bodies in homes and apartments.
You read this. You don't want to believe it. You can't accept it. However you must! Spend time with your families and loved ones if you can. Make peace with those you have wronged in the past. Do the best you can to prepare for your end.
This is the government's decision. The Emergency is over. Now it's time to accept fate. There is nothing to stop Coronavirus. It has jumped to livestock ( pork ). Soon, the chickens and cows will be infected. Death will enter the sea and it will turn red.
What are you waiting for? Go tell your neighbor's wife that you love her. Now is the time for the two of you to run away and spend these finally days, weeks, or months together.
i@n
You need to calm down people. Fear and anxiety make you more susceptible to infection.
Christopher Glen
Agreed. I bought an emergency 2 week supply at the beginning of lock-down, only to decide in hindsight, that the zombie apocalypse didn't happen
Christopher Glen
"You can guarantee the numbers are going to rise because people cannot stay out of the hostess clubs and night clubs and spread this crap which is putting a nail in the rest of the economy."
Ok, hostess clubs aren't a great place to be at the moment. But, it's the excessive response to the virus that is crippling economies.
WilliB
Christopher Glen
2 week supply of toilet paper? That was the only thing that was missing on the shelves.