The Tokyo metropolitan government on Saturday reported 17,433 new coronavirus cases, down 198 from Friday and up 6,206 from last Saturday.
By age group, 3,893 cases were in their 20s, 3,249 in their 30s, 2,755 in their 40s and 1,694 in their 50s, while 1,916 were aged between 10 and 19, and 2,151 younger than 10.
The number of infected people hospitalized with severe symptoms in Tokyo is 22, up two from Friday, health officials said. The nationwide figure was 734, up 37 from Friday.
Nationwide, the number of reported cases was 84,934. After Tokyo, the prefectures with the most cases were Osaka (10,383), Kanagawa (8,699), Aichi (5,613), Fukuoka (4,949), Hyogo (4,634), Saitama (3,827), Chiba (3,365), Hokkaido (3,002), Kyoto (2,754), Shizuoka (1,603), Hiroshima (1,356), Kumamoto (1,040), Gunma (1,099), Okinawa (979 plus a further 225 cases among U.S. military personnel), Ibaraki (904), Okayama (877), Gifu (815), Nara (772), Shiga (752), Tochigi (708), Nagasaki (668), Mie (632), Nagano (591), Miyagi (554), Niigata (486), Kagoshima (483), Oita (448), Wakayama (448), Fukushima (440), Saga (402), Miyazaki (397), Ishikawa (389), Yamaguchi (388), Aomori (368), Yamanashi (358), Ehime (357), Kagawa (331), Toyama (229), Kochi (186), Yamagata (170), Tokushima (163), Fukui (160) and Iwate (156).
The number of coronavirus-related deaths reported nationwide was 39.
- External Link
- https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html
42 Comments
anon99999
Jtsnose telling people to get a booster. In case you are not aware you cannot get a booster without a coupon from the government. It is not a matter of wanting one as you simply cannot get one.
In many prefectures this means you cannot get the Coupon till AFTER 7 months from your second shot. After it arrives you can make a booking if one is available which might be weeks. (Perhaps some prefectures are 6 months and others still at 8 months)
nonu6976
Omicron will be well gone by the time most people get their boosters.
Lindsay
Australia has shortened the time for a booster to three months. Covid is here to stay. Everyone has to do whatever they can to prevent severe symptoms.
Derek Grebe
75% positivity rate
My idiot boss got us all sent home again last week - second time this year - and another 2million cleaning fee for the office, at I'll bet you dollars to donuts that he will drag us all in again next week.
The man's an idiot.
nonu6976
Yes, there was that quote today by a doctor (reported in JT as well) saying he is visiting patients at home who clearly should be at hospital, who need oxygen, but were denied a bed. Of course Kishida/Koike are never asked questions regarding things like this - thats not allowed.
bjm2021
Steven MccarthyToday 05:47 pm JST
Steven McCarthy, you're completely out of touch with reality. Omicron is not NEARLY as deadly as Delta (especially for vaccinated pax), and the numbers from every country show that.
It's insane that people in Japan are still calling for lockdowns in 2022, when virtually every other country in the world (even Australia and NZ) have realized that lockdowns are ineffective, harmful, and merely delay the inevitable (not to mention the fact that a lockdown is not possible under Japanese law). Shutting down public transportation in a metropolis of 45 million over 22 people in severe condition?!? That's just nuts.
WilliB
samuraivunyl
Here too. Wife and son (both vaccinated): slight sniffle and headache. Me (unvaccinated): No symptoms at all. Some deadly virus...
stickman1760
doesn’t really make sense to obsess about the number of cases when most who get it recover. Can we lead off everyday with number of hospitalizations, deaths? Those are the more relevant figures at this stage.
JK
Testing is not important anymore. No point wasting resources to detect mild/asymptomatic cases. We cannot trace and prevent spreading of omicron anymore since it's everywhere and spreads fast. Test only people who need to be hospitalized because of severe symptoms.
bigfujiyama
"Various forms of covid, just like the flu will be with us for decades."
Maybe so. Some researchers think that the common cold evolved from a very old pandemic.
Saying that, covid isn't a cold or flu yet as some would like to imagine.
We are not in the endemic stage - small localized outbreaks - it is still a pandemic and we have to trust the science to get us through with the minimum of damage.
Tora
Cannot go up much more. Maximum testing capacity willing to implment has been reached. Will hover at 17,000 for a while and then go down. You wait and see. Good strategy.
Nihon Tora
I too would like to see a whole lot more testing. But not because of anything to do with controlling the pandemic. Simply so that all the millions of people in Japan that are likely to catch it actually know that they have had Omicron and it wasn't actually the cold that they thought it was. Finally it might get through to people that there really isn't that much to fear from this virus and that they should be trying to get their lives back to normal without anymore useless restrictions.
Ingvar
As a general rule, an infectious disease wants to live. If it kills the host within hours, chances are it won't live for long. So it becomes less severe as it spreads unless it encounters masses of soldiers in trenches as in WW1 where it can spread very easily without becoming less severe. After Omicron, the next varient will be nothing more a runny nose for a day or two. Big Pharma will take credit for it but say we must take 4 bosters a year regardless and governments in the West and Japan will of course fall in line behind the Big Pharma diktats.
Pukey2
According to the website of my city, I was scheduled to have my booster 6 months after my second shot. Then, because of Omicron, the government said it was speeding up everything. Today, I check the website again, and we're told there will be a 8-month gap. What the?
bokuda
Really?... I cannot find it.
Aint you in the false premise that there's somebody in charge that knows what he's doing?
anon99999
Possibly reaching the limit of number of cases the limited number of testing will allow. This applies not only Tokyo but smaller prefectures too. They simply cannot do much greater numbers of tests which might show continued rise and instead will fluctuate around these maximums for awhile till they go down
WilliB
Expotential Witness
Pretty much. If you filter out co-morbities, these COVID deaths seem to shrink spectacularly everwhere. For example, check the recent UK data:
While the government and the media are reporting over 150,000 deaths in the UK (“within 28 days of a positive test”) the ONS have admitted in a Freedom of Information request, that the number with no underlying causes is just 17,000.
Just like that, from 150,000 to 17,000.... but dont expect the corporate media to note.
Here’s a link
https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/deathsfromcovid19withnootherunderlyingcauses
anon99999
That is the point here in Japan. Still waiting for your voucher and for most people here they will still be waiting till after the omicron wave has already subsided. Maybe the Japanese government knows something other countries don’t know about the lack of effectiveness of the boosters because they seem hard bent on not giving them out in a hurry even with the current numbers
Pukey2
I phoned a relative back home, and he told me he could have his fourth shot soon (although he will decide to wait a bit longer as his last shot was only 3 months ago).
John Noun
It'd be nice to see more testing to be honest. Give an honest reflection so professionals can act accordingly.
What is the testing capacity in Tokyo? 20,000?
Zeram1
Any testing capacity this low will not provide an accurate record of the true infected number. As a comparison, the state of California with a total population 3-4x that of Tokyo, is doing over 2 million tests/day in order to know what’s really going on.
WilliB
True, but those deadly ones (Ebola, Rabies etc) have animal hosts, and kill their human victims quickly when transmitted, making for a short explosive burst but no pandemic. Endemic viruses like influenza need to become less lethal if they want to stay in the population. You might want to read up on how evolution works.
ian
There is another test for that.
And there are methods to estimate it accurately enough so no need to test whole populations.
Japan do it probably twice a year on some prefectures, other countries probably more
virusrex
This does not mean what you think it means, if a million cases of deaths with malnutrition get reduced to only 1000 where malnutrition is the only cause (no infection, dehydration, renal problems, etc) would that make you think malnutrition is not a problem anymore?
This is no argument, SARS-CoV-2 can survive without problem killing a respectable percentage of the new infections so this is no reason it will "have" to become less serious, and even if it does this can take literally generations of humans to reach that level. Many other human infectious diseases are as deadly now as in prehistory. There is nothing stopping new variants from appearing as long as large segments of the population are not immunized, and since cross neutralization from other viruses against omicron is poor the same can be expected for the opposite case, this means that even previous variants can come back even if people become immune to omicron only.
Zeram1
In this forum, I suppose one takes the 75% positivity rate whichever way that you see fit.
stickman1760
Russia is struggling with the virus but we’ll never know the true extent as they suppress information
ian
Ok might as well pitch in.
To begin with the data is about people who died due to COVID-19, not omicron.
Complete title of dataset:
Meaning is clear and straight forward but if data inside mean differently I wouldn't know, didn't peek
Jtsnose
Remember to get fully vaccinated, means 2X - twice - 二回
Those fully vaccinated should get BOOSTER after 6 months, ブースター after being fully vaccinated.
For Those Seeking Vaccination Sites in Japan,
https://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/search/
コロナワクチン ナビ
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=en&tl=ja&u=https://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/search/
bokuda
PCR tested in Tokyo 1/26 is 21,877.
When are we gonna reach a 100% infected?
Blacklabel
The same can be said about the vaccine that people are taking just to still get Covid anyway.
WilliB
TWENTY TWO (22) in a metropolis of 20 million. Which means de facto: Almost zero. But you have to look beyond the headline to see that.
Steven Mccarthy
Avg deaths per day from Covid to Dec 31,2021 ~ 24.7. Avg deaths from Covid Jan 1- date 43.4. I live in Japan so I am only referring to Japan. So yes , omicron is more deadly than any other variant here . I clearly said “make and enforce” a true SOE and lockdown. Means change the law . And Yes ! Shut down public transportation. All forms of it . 3 weeks should suffice . It’s certainly better than the status quo.
Steven Mccarthy
Cue up the false/fake fact checkers . Omicron is as deadly as Delta . Everything is not peaches and cream. This is not remotely even close to the flu . Where are these 550,000 active cases ? Severe symptoms means on a ventilator. So how many people are there in the hospitals? We know there are some at home who should be hospitalized. Daijobu… not ! Trying to be positive. The only thing positive is the day infection rate and daily increase in deaths . The economy cannot be maintained as long as Covid is out of control and the naysayers continue to regurgitate their daily lies . This is not just going away. Here in Japan, we are nowhere near the peak . With the borders virtually closed , it’s time to make and enforce a real SOE. A REAL lockdown. Not the fake ones we’ve had over and over. Shut down public transportation. Forbid the ever famous daily meetings in a closed setting. Maybe if Japan would in FACT report the death rate from Covid in children, maybe just maybe the adults would start to act responsibly together. And those that refuse , deport them forthwith. And their partners too . Time to get real people.