Tokyo reports 15,525 new coronavirus cases; nationwide death toll soars to record 236

Omicron is not causing the overwhelming majority of people problems!-how’s that for a headline?

Be over soon as we see on other nations. Lockdowns won’t stop everyone getting it, nor will vaccines. It’s highly contagious yet very mild, despite this some will die. The figures of 230 or so dying seem high but with the population of Japan they are minute. The average age of death is over 80, no under 10’s have died.

Some countries have realised that we need to have business as usual, draconian measures do not save lives, they destroy the economy and have terrible mental and physical health impacts, particularly amongst the children.

denialism is all the antivaxxers have left, thank god theyre not deciding how this pandemic will be played out.

record 236 dead in one day, all theyve got is, its over, government is manipulating data, because they dont have any evidence, not that they need any for their pseudoscience

since we are getting so detailed informations everyday i still miss two important numbers that will make picture more complete and real:

how many new cases are vaccinated people?

how many deaths caused by covid were vaccinated people?

we have NEVER get this information,possibly as "source" may be afraid to reveal truth that vaccines used never really works and possibly even vaccinated people became "cases" or have even died...

pls try your best and provide more numbers as mentioned above....just do it and i am sure you can do it!

@realistic , Japan has a great healthcare system (insurance) but horrible healthcare. So many are dying because of so many new cases everyday and the hospitals are on the brink of disaster. And the govt is putting the economy over people’s health. This country needs a hard lockdown. Omicron is by far the most deadly variant of Covid in Japan to date. And too many ignorant people stating patently false statements daily. Coupled with the “daijobu” (don’t worry) attitude of the general population makes it an even more deadly combination.

sanjinosebleed....

I wonder if the 236 died of or with Covid? Big difference!

This has been answered many times as you know.... Only those whose covid infection was the MAIN cause of death are listed, sorry not those in traffic accidents who happen to test positive in made up stories on Reddit.

Steven

Indeed lockdowns are useless as I stated repeatedly

All deaths are sad but will haha open whether we have restrictions or not.

Ashley

Too many friend of a friend anecdotal stories from you over the months. Let stick to the facts please.

Umm, numbers are actually back up in Okinawa.

Ah there was a small spike today (721 today versus 682 last week) but generally the trend is going down from the high of 1,829 cases a month ago when it hit the peak.

Health advisers expressed concern that even if cases may have peaked or are peaking now and go down it may go up again even higher shortly due to spread of the new omicron subvariant and prolong the sixth wave.

They are unsure because they don't know yet most of the new subvariant's characteristics

Not at all. This is Japan and what has or hasn’t worked elsewhere doesn’t apply here .

So yah, it’s time for a true and hard lockdown. It’s better to try and be wrong than to be right and do nothing . 

Oh Steven, surely you're joking. :)

According to the guru of patently false information and predictions, we’re all doomed ; this was yesterday.

“Steven

Lockdowns are infective at stoping the spread of Omicron as are the vaccines. It has to run its course, everyone will be infected.”

The ONLY restrictions here that is enforced are border controls. So yah, it’s time for a true and hard lockdown. It’s better to try and be wrong than to be right and do nothing . Big business has only gotten fatter during Covid. So they should be able to get by for 3-4 weeks . Record deaths and children still leading the surge.

Then another ray of sunshine today ; Victim shaming . I am stunned at the utter lack of concern and empathy some have for others .

“For a lot of those 236 who died, covid was just the straw that broke the camel's back.”

Who thinks like that ?

You don't wait until symptoms show up to start looking for things; by then it's too late. Ask someone with cancer. Ask an oncologist. Heck, ask an infectious disease specialist or someone with AIDS. This is precisely why annual health checked are so key in Japan.

I take your point that screening is also used and ideally we would want to find most cancers this way. However, most cancers are found by testing rather than by health checks and preventative medicine. (20% through health checks on a normal year)* Would imagine most HIV tests happen after someone suspects they've been infected also. The reality is that right now most diseases are discovered after the fact - and it's not because society wants to be mean. It's just that the costs of testing for diseases don't make economical sense.

This is also comparing a once a year health check mostly supported by companies to testing for a disease that is always out there.

So what I'm saying is, I don't think it's practical to do mass testing in Japan for COVID-19 in the same way that it wouldn't be practical to test everyone for those other diseases. It doesn't reduce the number of cases/mortalities - or at least it hasn't in countries that have done it. And I'm not sure it would be worth the investment just to have a clearer statistical picture of coronavirus in Japan.

There is zero excuse why testing isn't done at a scale large enough to reduce positive findings to under 15%. Zero.

I strongly disagree with using positivity as a metric. Japan has stayed pretty consistent with the way that it has been testing. The numbers we have every day are pretty solid in that regard. They go up when the disease spreads and go down when the current wave peters out.

You mean cities like Delhi, Shanghai, Osaka, Hong Kong and others?

I would argue that Okinawa is a better model than any of those cities. Even the cultural differences between an Indian city and a Chinese city are vast enough to lead to a huge statistical divergence. And given that both regions were subject to hard lockdowns compared to Japan where we've only had state of emergencies, I would expect there to be an even greater disparity.

It's not a conspiracy, the positive ratio speaks for itself. In what other developed country or city can you find positive rates above 50%? What epidemiologist or data scientist would use this kind of data?

Apologies for my use of the word "conspiracy". I do think that there are a lot of comments that suggest the government is hijacking death rates and tests by use of nefarious means. So that's basically what I'm trying to refer to when I use this word. Clearly not everyone who disagrees with the method of testing isn't a conspiracy theorist. I do think Japan chose to gather statistics differently to other countries and it's important to keep that mind - a direct comparison in caseload is difficult. However, with deaths and severe cases - I believe so far severe cases are the best indication we have of long term symptoms - are statistics that we can compare. If we do, Japan does relatively well in terms of pandemic management.

Lastly, I would like to thank you for your detailed and respectful response.

*https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14162865

I wonder if the 236 died of or with Covid? Big difference!

Even new zealand is now telling people not to get tested unless they have symptoms.

When can we ditch the masks?

People who don't wear masks on the train, in markets, and at work are inconsiderate and frankly, dumb.

There's no need for asymptomatic people tp be tested here.

Even people with symptoms aren't getting tested though. My coworker said his kid's class was closed for the week due to covid. The kid himself has symptoms, so his mother took him to a hospital that said they do covid tests. She got told they won't test him unless he has a fever... Now my coworker himself has symptoms as well, but of course he can't get tested.

FYI my kid's class was also closed for the week. The school reports 4-7 cases very day, but always come back saying there were no "close contacts" for those cases. The reason is they have no tests to give so they won't classify anyone as a close contact.

“When will we ditch the mask?”

mask is worn here not out of fear or panic. It might applies to some but most is out of common practice to prevent you and others from potential infections, COVID included. This practice has been around well before covid and widely accepted but not enforced. You can ditch it any time you like… who cares?

Rest in Peace to the 236 dead.

Oh no. Another grim record.

Rest in peace.

Rest in Peace to the 236 dead.

Understood @jexan 5:56pm - It would be nice to see everyone for who they are and everything for what it really is.

*- @Jexan 5:56pm: “When can we ditch the masks?” -*

In other countries, there is no “leveling”. Just peaked then went down.

Why is Japan’s not going down? No booster.

But when the LDP actively puts this into practice as is demonstrable by the figures by any metric you can present it is a "conspiracy theory".

Can you please demonstrate it now?

There was just a story from last Thursday how the entire country can't do more than 380,000 PCR tests in a single day.

By chance, are you referring to this article from two weeks ago: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220127/p2a/00m/0sc/005000c

It refers to an antigen test shortage - not PCR test shortage. Antigen tests usually for home use and have relatively low sensitivity for coronavirus.

Japan is NOT testing anywhere near legitimate numbers of people

Disagree. Japan tests on an as needed basis. Testing in western countries has not prevented them from having high mortality rates due to coronavirus. Mass testing in Japan is impractical. There's no need for asymptomatic people tp be tested here.

Imagine if the same inadequate medical incompetence were made for things like HIV, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cancer and other diseases.

I don't like comparing COVID-19 to other diseases because it usually ends up with the "COVID is polio" or "COVID is the flu" arguments but I what I will say that people usually have cause to suspect they have one of those diseases you've mentioned before getting tested.

And people need to stop with the useless comparisons to Okinawa. 

I don't think it's a useless comparison. Okinawa was ahead of Tokyo this wave and provides a useful cultural model for Tokyo in terms of predicting the course of omicron here, imo. I'd of course be open to using other densely populated cities if they existed.

The biggest problem with this site is how people who have no idea what they are talking about are free to post whatever they want and create narratives that mislead and deceive people while legitimate posts are moderated or removed for breaking "rules".

Don't know if this is directed at me but actually I do know what I'm talking about. But even if I didn't, isn't it up to upstanding knowledgeable folks like yourself to deconstruct my argument rather than have me removed from discussions? If you're respectful about it, pretty sure you won't get censored.

down 1,588 from last Tuesday.

Great to see the curve finally flattening, well done everyone.

It’s now ‘over’ every year when numbers a bit decrease or higher spring and summer temperatures are within sight. It was ‘over’ in 2020 with vaccinations for everyone, next the postponed Tokyo games were a final defeat of the virus celebration and now the sixth wave is eyed as the last one because that variant is ‘harmless like a flu’. Come on, that’s all only bs or kiddy sandbox play and talking, nothing of all that can be taken really serious.

Definitely coming back down now. I think there were a lot more people that had it than actually tested positive - wouldn't be at all surprised it it was 10 times or more.

And tests aren't even strictly necessary now to diagnose covid.

The link in the article shows just over 17,000 tests. 

It's was 26,446 tests yesterday. 17,121 is the rolling average over three days.

So 26,446 people who thought they had omicron symptoms severe enough to be seen by a doctor went to their doctor and got tested. Out of those tests, 15,525 were positive for omicron. The rest either submit themselves to regular testing at their workplace or maybe thought they had symptoms and went for a test at the many many available centers in Tokyo or maybe they just wanted time off work.

There is no mandatory imposed limit on these tests - only in the imaginations of conspiracy theorists. :)

No, the numbers are being manipulated to save face.

Save face for what

Seems like it's levelling off already

No, the numbers are being manipulated to save face.

We are at a plateau in cases controlled by the limited number of tests. Look at the numbers of small prefectures the bounce around in a defined range which will never get much higher because they simply don’t have the capacity to do more tests which would see them with even higher cases. Thus the rise and fall to the peak of cases is obscured. Eventually though the numbers will go down and fall from the range they are bouncing in now and then we will see the decline, but for now it’s still somewhere on the obscured peak

The link in the article shows just over 17,000 tests. That’s one way to ensure numbers can’t spiral out of control I guess haha!

It's over.

Getting so ridiculously predictable.

Give it a rest.

Oh the predicable irony

This downward trend was obvious and follows what we've seen in Okinawa.

So yes, predictable. But ironic?

Positivity rate and number manipulation! The government!

Oh the predicable irony

Positivity rate and number manipulation! The government!

Or we're seeing the end of the omicron wave in Japan. Sometimes the answers are that simple.

2022 will be the end of this pandemic as we know it.