Tokyo reports 393 coronavirus cases; nationwide tally 1,792

Yep, Japan has lots of problems - bureaucratic incompetence, govt fence sitting, restricting testing and releasing selective statitics, comparing itself with "other countries" whilst testing under completely different goalposts..its plain to see for everyone except diehard J-lovers.

Believe me buddy, I'm far from a J-lover. I've been in Japan for 15 years and take the good with the bad. I just have fun reading the JT conspiracy theories that are easily debunked by common sense.

The numbers are down in all of Japan, not just the SOE prefectures. Some other factor is not being accounted for.

Incredibly good. Means not many people have the symptoms.

This ignores the fact that people without symptoms can still spread the disease.

6000 tests in a city of 20, 000, 000. That is incredible.

Incredibly good. Means not many people have the symptoms.

6000 tests in a city of 20, 000, 000. That is incredible.

I very much doubt that there will be fines for resisting hospitalization as there are 1.a limited number of drugs to treat the virus and 2. most of the infected are fine to stay at home for 10 days to naturally overcome Covid.

Expect numbers falling further. If they want to make Italy here by putting everyone with positive test into hospital then who wants to risk? Positive doesn't mean sickness (yet)

From Mainichi News

A revision to the infectious disease law would introduce fines of up to 500,000 yen ($4,770) for COVID-19 patients resisting hospitalization and 300,000 yen for those who fail to participate in epidemiological surveys by health authorities.

Well done Tokyo. Don't stop now.

Keep up your efforts.

I wonder if influenza numbers are still at zero.

They were around 0.2% of previous year if I recall correctly. Do you doubt those numbers too?

" testing capacity in Tokyo will be increased to 65 thousand daily - Yuriko Koike

" Japan will increase it's PCR test capacity to 250 thousand per day - Sinzo Abe

You do know what capacity means right? If they filled the capacity only testing people with symptoms then we would have a pretty serious problem.

@rzadigi

Yes, pretty easy to see if you aren't blinded by ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Looking back over the past year it is easy to see when cases were at their highest; about a week after major holidays. Recognizing that people gather together on holidays and may let down their guard a bit, it’s also easy to understand why cases go up. And then after the govt and media sound the alarms and people wise up the cases slowly come down again.

Very few countries have handled COVID perfectly, and there are obviously many experts here commenting that knew all the right steps all along, but I’m just grateful to be living in Japan where life is still relatively normal.

Its a “state of emergency” not a lockdown.... Do you understand the difference?

And those are weekend figures so as usual when people phone up with their symptoms, unless they are describing “difficulty in breathing” they will be waiting until AFTER the weekend for their PCR test.... Just like every other weekend since March of last year.

Wednesday will show an uptick in numbers but the trend is downward. Still not low enough for Tokyo so another month of SOE. ....

I was pretty sure that Hiroshima could never test 800,000.

I wonder if influenza numbers are still at zero.

If the numbers are lower, it means they are not as high. Fact.

I believe you're talking about tests and i agree :)

I'd like to see some actual experts on infectious diseases or epidemics interviewed and ascertain the reason for such a massive drop. They should be able to answer if this is even realistic? But I guess nobody, experts and media alike, wants to get in bad standing for suggesting the "wrong" thing. "Wrong" meaning anything that is not the LDP narrative.

Who are the "stable geniuses" in Japan parroting last year's discredited "science" that covid testing is making the country look bad (for the Olympics and bizness) and are telling "their people" to "slow the testing down"?

And quick update on Hiroshima. Plans to test all citizens has be cutback to 280,000 and its going to cost 1 billion yen.

So there is a huge local outcry over the waste of taxpayer funds, many have said they won't get tested either because its a waste of tax funds or because or the inconvenience.

Numbers are down nationwide not just Tokyo.

Are they gonna do that random PCR testing that they promised?

'cause its been a week already, still waiting.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/Japan-to-start-random-PCR-testing-to-ascertain-extent-of-infections

If the numbers are lower, it means they are not as high. Fact.

@Sandy: yes! Hospitals are full, ICs are completely overcrowded (doctors have to make macabre choices who to choose: a COVID patient or someone who had a heart attack), the government limited contact tracing, yeaaaa Japan is doing fabulous! You must so glad your predictions are right. Maybe you should write a book about it. Maybe you can call it “Japan’s fabulous pandemic miracle - a true story about a crashed medical system, reduced testing, and ignorant citizens: the blueprint which made me believe a corrupt government.”

...I did not want to tell you so, but my prediction is......Right on.

Japan is doing fabulous.

I rest my case once again!

Maybe we don’t need the vaccines in Tokyo after all.

I too dont buy into the low numbers.

It’s a miracle.

Japan needs to sell the secret to the rest of the world - it could write off all the national debt many times over with whatever magical knowledge they have been using to make the number of positive cases go down so fast, and so perfectly day after day.

Question: considering the facts mentioned above, how can one not question the magical Tokyo’s infection numbers rate sharp decrease, while most countries in the world are not able to decrease numbers so sharply, even while applying real and very strict measures and strongly encouraging testing to locate clusters?

riddle me this dude: why has japan, and also South Korea, experienced such low number of infections and deaths, whereas countries of similar size and population has exponentially higher numbers?

people saying the government stopped contact tracing are not conspiracy theorists, it’s a fact. 

The govt stopped contact tracing? Really?

Yeah, I agree with the doubters. Something just is not right about these numbers. I smell a rat named Tokyo Olympics 2021 somewhere in the equation.

That’s quite below 150 tests only, per prefecture. If it wasn’t so sad, I would laugh out loud.

Gotta say that it seems more than a little coincidental that since the government changed the contact tracing policy 1 week ago, we have seen a dramatic decrease in reported numbers.

Care to explain how contact tracing could reduce the number of infections? Japan only tests people who feel sick and show symptoms. Contact tracing ONLY involves notifying people who have come into contact with an infected person. It NEVER required that those people get tested. Smgfh...

Can’t just say *

@Akula; people saying the government stopped contact tracing are not conspiracy theorists, it’s a fact. You can just say something is a conspiracy theory if you don’t like something.

All the conspiracy theorists out in force it seems. Admittedly the figure is always lower during the weekend, but it is still great to see.

Success of the strategy to stop contact tracing. Numbers have fallen since this was announced last week.

What a brilliant idea to bring down the number!.

Trains remained incredibly packed, offices and restaurants alike as remote working is nearly non existent, no capacity limit in restaurants or retail whatsoever as these always fill to capacity, and social distancing is still a poor concept after one year of pandemic.

Those are not facts!!!

Yes they are facts! Do you Elvis ever leave your house and see what Tokyo is like during the SOE... everything mentioned in the other comment by AG are spot on! If you had been to Tokyo last month then you would have known the reality is exactly as AG mentioned! This state of emergency was a farce! The entire month under the SOE was like any other ordinary day! It wouldn’t have made any difference if the SOE wasn’t implemented!

So funny how the SOE will be extended Tues. and they said that in order for the SOE to be lifted , cases need to be stage 3 or about 300 daily cases. So much trickery in this country with manipulating data, It’s a miracle that the virus is going away all due to the fact that businesses are closing at 8:p.m. Let’s just pretend to wear a mask and say that you are washing your hands. We are a model country for the entire world using these simple little steps controlling a virus that has killed millions worldwide. Olympics anyone?

I got the solution for the pandemic.

Burn all the calculators, make them count with their fingers and toes.

I promise you that numbers will descent below 20

...or 21

ObjectiveToday 04:31 pm JST

I am not mad at these numbers. Less people with serious symptoms. If they are consistently reporting numbers based on their protocol then there are fewer cases showing up. What is not to like about that?

If you don't have the capacity to make enough tests, then the results you can make/will get is the maximum number of the capacity you have. Compare tests done in Japan, vs tests done in S. Korea, let's take Switzerland, Czechia, Austria, Germany.

This make is very obvious that you aren't handling the situation. Right now, it feels it's like Olympics is the priority nr. 1. Virus comes later.

Especially when an article this morning at 06:34 am stated-

A spike in coronavirus infections in Japan is driving local households to do what they have always done in times of crisis: spend less and save more, stoking fears of a deeper retail recession and grinding deflation.

Japan's COVID crisis reawakens deflation fears as cash hoarding returns - Japan Today

I am not mad at these numbers. Less people with serious symptoms. If they are consistently reporting numbers based on their protocol then there are fewer cases showing up. What is not to like about that?

There were also 108 deaths reported on Jan 31st, 2nd highest level ever. While it's good that infections are going down, I hope it doesn't decrease the urgency of starting vaccinations.

I have to agree with the Doubting Thomases here. These numbers just seem VERY VERY fishy. I'm not buying it for a minute.

7th January: 2,447. 

Daily record, the only day that was handy to have a higher number, in order to justify the implementation of State of Emergency.

State of Emergency = life as normal as befote, just “requesting” restaurants to close by 8:00PM and some remote working.

Due to oldschool working culture remote working is still a mirage very far away from reality for nearly all japanese companies.

From the VERY NEXT DAY, 8th January, numbers start declining, and haven’t stopped going down since then.

Just to have an idea, since SOE started, Monday’s Tokyo numbers have experienced a staggering 50% decrease in the number of infections, reaching this magical low number today.

Trains remained incredibly packed, offices and restaurants alike as remote working is nearly non existent, no capacity limit in restaurants or retail whatsoever as these always fill to capacity, and social distancing is still a poor concept after one year of pandemic.

Important to highlight testing remains incredibly low (and difficult) considering Tokyo’s and Japan’s population, meaning it is nearly impossible to know the dimension of the problem, to locate clusters and stop transmission chains.

As per today’s Bloomberg’s article the capital’s hospital bed occupancy rate were at 73% and critical care units at 113% of capacity on the 27th Jan.

While everyone’s opinion on the numbers might defer, these are facts that no one living and working in Tokyo can deny.

Question: considering the facts mentioned above, how can one not question the magical Tokyo’s infection numbers rate sharp decrease, while most countries in the world are not able to decrease numbers so sharply, even while applying real and very strict measures and strongly encouraging testing to locate clusters?

Hopefully number of deaths go down also

Gotta say that it seems more than a little coincidental that since the government changed the contact tracing policy 1 week ago, we have seen a dramatic decrease in reported numbers.