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Japan reports record high 250,403 coronavirus cases; 34,243 in Tokyo

32 Comments

Japan on Wednesday reported a record high 250,403 new daily coronavirus cases. Twenty prefectures also reported high numbers.

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday reported 34,243 new coronavirus cases, up 5,128 from Tuesday.

The number of infected people hospitalized with severe symptoms in Tokyo is 40, unchanged from Tuesday, health officials said. The nationwide figure is 597, up 16 from Tuesday.

Other prefectures reporting high numbers were Osaka (23,730), Aichi (18,862), Saitama (13,035), Kanagawa (12,965), Fukuoka (12,260), Hyogo (12,254), Chiba (8,392), Hokkaido (7,773), Shizuoka (7,089), Kyoto (6,478), Hiroshima (5,372), Okinawa (5,063), Kumamoto (4,370), Miyagi (4,199), Kagoshima (3,988), Mie (3,887), Gifu (3,802), Nagasaki (3,370), Okayama (3,315), Miyazaki (3,303), Ibaraki (2,963), Gunma (2,784), Tochigi (2,668), Shiga (2,578), Fukushima (2,554), Ehime (2,514), Yamaguchi (2,483), Nagano (2,387), Oita (2,383), Nara (2,277) and Ishikawa (2,147).

The number of coronavirus-related deaths reported nationwide was 251,

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32 Comments

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Crikey - that seems like a lot as we head into the Obon period.

How does it compare to this time last week? We used to get those figures, but they seem not to be reported recently.

21?

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Counting cases has become counterproductive. Better to follow the lead of other countries (like the extremely careful Thai government) and downgrade Covid to a flu.

-10 ( +8 / -18 )

Nepalibabu - I didn’t know there was a difference. If there is though, why should someone hospitalized from Covid pay less than someone hospitalized by the flu?

National health insurance means that the amount paid is minimal any way.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

If the government doesn’t downgrade to a flu then when does it end? The health experts should never run a country - risk averse to say the least!

-6 ( +9 / -15 )

Nepalibabu - Regardless of your view on whether hospital treatment is expensive, my question was why people should not pay for Covid, but do have to pay for the flu (or anything else)?

It is irrelevant but I disagree that hospital is expensive - as you say, it is capped. For elderly with limited income it is essentially free. Japan has a very reasonable health insurance system IMO.

-5 ( +8 / -13 )

Hot day in Tokyo, maskless, feeling the breeze. Love it.

-4 ( +11 / -15 )

Japan has a very reasonable health insurance system IMO.

I pay about 120,000 yen a month for national health insurance and then 30% of all costs for my family. That doesn't seem very reasonable to me.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

Nepalibabu - I still don’t follow your logic. Surely if they have to pay, it is more of an incentive to take greater precautions, not the other way around?

I disagree that m the medical expense burden should be different to a severe case of the flu.

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

Back on topic please. The flu is not relevant to this discussion.

People are asking about how this being classified differently affects things., This is my experience of the system.

We didnt gave to pay for the anti inflamatory medicine but we paid about 2,000 yen for the test.

Isolating at home is considered being in hospital so I was able to claim 15,000 yen per day on my life insurance for the 10 day period. My wife claimed about 12,000 per day.

We were also sent a box of food from the local health department that covered 3-4 days of the isolation. We could have asked for more.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

I pay about 120,000 yen a month for national health insurance

You must be raking it in, then. A family of three with a total income of some ¥45 million is charged ¥850,000 annually if the head of household is under 40, ¥1,020,000 if HoH is aged between 40 and 64.

https://www.mmea.biz/simulation/kokuho_calculation/

4 ( +6 / -2 )

The absolute fixation on cases numbers unfortunately creates a climate of fear that destroys mental health, business, risk-taking, etc. Other countries are moving on at a rapid pace and Japan is getting left behind. Traveling to the UK this summer, I noticed that Covid is largely forgotten, a thing belonging to history with only hypochondriacs (and sorry to say the immuno-compromised) and the odd masked Asian resident (an observation not a stereotype) a reminder that it exists at all.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

Mega-numbers again!

Okinawa still taking a beating too.

Obviously the current vaccines are essentially useless to protect agains the current variant. With the new vaccines coming out in a few months, it makes sense to hold off getting vaccinated until then, if that's your thing.

In the meantime--stay away from enclosed, non-well-ventilated places where people outside your household congregate.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

@painkiller: Yep, That’s my thing as well as wearing a mask on the train and shops. Other than that life goes on as normal. Moderna have filed for approval the newer variant vaccine today, so yes, that will be my 4th hopefully. There will be no lockdown, as much as you wish for one.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

theResidentToday  07:18 pm JST

@painkiller: Yep, That’s my thing as well as wearing a mask on the train and shops. Other than that life goes on as normal. Moderna have filed for approval the newer variant vaccine today, so yes, that will be my 4th hopefully. There will be no lockdown, as much as you wish for one.

Same as you.

I am considering the new vaccines, but still undecided.

If Japan locked down, now is the perfect time with schools out. Japan could get their numbers down to the levels of China.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

@Wobot - the Financial Times ran a recent article heavy on statistics showing Omicron having a lower death rate than seasonal flu at less than 0.1%. Whatever the mods say, that’s surely relevant given that this publication fixates on numbers on a daily basis.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

And totally trash the economy which is just starting to recover? Don’t believe a word China says anyway. I’d leave. I refuse to be locked up at home as will many here after two and a half of years this

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

@painkiller - what’s the point in following the China model? Unless you want financial destruction! Once it’s endemic there is no zero model to follow.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

For context, 250,403 got it, 250 died, so thats 0.1%.

Like flu.

Around 3,000 people in Japan die from flu in an average year - which would, if spread evenly throughout the year (which it's not of course) be 8-9 deaths a day. Currently Covid deaths are around 250 daily. Which is probably why the Ministry of Health thinks that just relabelling Covid as a little sniffles is unlikely to magically melt away sick and dying people in the hospitals. Magical thinkers who can't cope with reality might like to hear that it doesn't exist any more, but most sane people want the government to equip the health system to deal with the situation the best it can. @Nepalibabu has explained very clearly why recognising reality helps hospitals to cope with the pressure they're under. In countries with less enlightened health policies, sickness can bankrupt not only the sick, but entire families of a sick person. We all know there are certain countries where people avoid going to hospital because they can't afford to be treated. I for one am thankful that Japan is more enlightened.

It's also a basic public health measure, which applies to other dangerous contagious illnesses like TB, that recognises that untreated infectious sick people are a risk to the whole community and the whole health system, again as @Nepalibabu explains.

12 ( +15 / -3 )

And in case anyone doubts the strain on the health system, people needing medical attention are having to wait as much as 24 hours:

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14692078

I was part of that statistic, falling unconscious at a clinic and needing to be transferred to an A&E. I 'only' had to wait about 2 hours in the ambulance, was put on oxygen and a drip, and prescribed anti-virals (as a priority case, not everyone is entitled to this). After patching me up, they originally wanted me to walk home (mid-afternoon, over 30 degrees), not use a taxi, because all the special taxis were already in use. After they decided it might be a bad look, I had another two hour wait before they found a community ambulance to get me home.

Three weeks on, I am able to go out, but it's not a steady recovery, my hearing is affected, I have headaches and currently low oxygen levels (at least I was lucky because my partner 'qualified' for an oximeter).

My partner has a different range of symptoms, but he's by no means back to health.

These are two examples of so-called mild cases.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

Obviously the current vaccines are essentially useless

Good to see that people finally starts to understand and can see the reality.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

Around 3,000 people in Japan die from flu in an average year

As with COVID though, there are many different ways of classifying a death with/from a disease like this because very often they are contributing factors, and in both cases, rarely killing people in good health directly. In a bad flu season in the UK, it is estimated that around 30,000 people will die of the flu, so the 3000 figure seams a bit low for a country with double that population - possibly that number was just people that died directly of the flu at old age and not with it as a co-morbidity. The death rate for flu is generally accepted at a little less than 0.1% - the current variants of COVID are something similar to that, although a lot more people are getting infected at these peaks.

Another point to note, the last two flu seasons have been virtually non-existent due to the COVID restrictions - it is likely that if the COVID pandemic never occurred, quite a few of the people dying of COVID now would have been taken out by the normal flu epidemics that would have swept the country over the last couple of years.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Moderna have filed for approval the newer variant vaccine today, so yes, that will be my 4th hopefully

I would not be too euphoric about that.

Shots 1, 2, 3, did not bring the expected success.

So why should this one bring it?

But yeah, let's wait and see and hope for the best.

Enjoy your Obon.

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

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