Tokyo reports 471 new coronavirus cases; nationwide tally 2,643

Private labs back from the weekend now numbers go up again!

It is sad that for most the only way to get tested in Japan is to pay which means we will never know the true numbers as many cannot or will not pay.

Most other developed countries testing is available to all and free.

Very scary numbers when looking at the positivity rates.

Shop online.

I live near a PCR testing center so I can get tested anytime and is covered by insurance but the bio-tent looks freaky. Reminds me of the end of the movie of ET GO HOME where everyone wearing hazmat suites.

I live near a PCR testing center so I can get tested anytime and is covered by insurance

You say you can, have you tried?

My daughter tried, co-worker had covid-19, a week later she had a fever, she went to be tested and was told "No her symptoms were not severe enough" so her employer got her tested by a private lab.

This was repeated for everyone in the company, not one could get tested in the free public health test site.

Paid like JPY25,000 to have a swab jammed up my nasal passage in order to get a piece of paper with the type of test, result and so forth, written in English. To fly out of Japan.

And made a color copy.

AntiquesavingToday 05:25 pm JST

I live near a PCR testing center so I can get tested anytime and is covered by insurance

You say you can, have you tried?

My daughter tried, co-worker had covid-19, a week later she had a fever, she went to be tested and was told "No her symptoms were not severe enough" so her employer got her tested by a private lab.

This was repeated for everyone in the company, not one could get tested in the free public health test site.

Yes @antiquesaving. I had to get a PCR and my results came negative but what scared me the most is actually sitting in a locked up bio-tent with outhers waiting to get PCR tested because you could easily catch it from being in that test just waiting for a test. It truely is scary but the doctors in that tent have more ballz than I do to be in there all day doing PCR testing which means they are much prone to catching it.

Low numbers, very good. We see Covid in retreat now and life slowly returns to normal. We know the vaccines reduce the chances of death and transmission to a certain degree. With vaccine roll out well under way we will soon wave good buy to the Covid nuisance

perry:

Paid like JPY25,000 to have a swab jammed up my nasal passage in order to get a piece of paper with the type of test, result and so forth, written in English. To fly out of Japan.

And when you come back, I bet you won't even have to pay half that amount for a test and certificate.

This is a positive number seeing it got to 1000 a day not so long ago. Osaka at 200 or so today as well.

Going in the right direction.

The chances of getting it are low. The chances of dying from it now are even lower.

An effective vaccine is at hand. More than one actually.

How scary are the numbers now? Elementary school level scary imo.

This is a positive number seeing it got to 1000 a day not so long ago. Osaka at 200 or so today as well.

Guess going up by 200 in a single day nearly double the previous day is a good thing?

BTW on the day of 1,000 cases they tested just over 10,000 people.

Now on Sunday they tested just over 1,500 in all of Tokyo.

Does 1,500 test in a region like Tokyo make sense to anyone, especially considering the weekday testing was between 6,000 and 9,000 per day?

Antique

The numbers are indeed falling, hospital cases and deaths confirm the low numbers and the good news. It’s time for some us to realise that the battle against Covid is almost over. The chaos did not and will not unless a much deadlier variant appears.

The return to normality is important, yet we must still take precautions for now.

If anyone whishes to know how sad the testing situation is in Japan.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/full-list-cumulative-total-tests-per-thousand-map

Japan a highly developed country is in par with developing countries like the Philippines which is actually testing more than Japan.

106 tests per 1,000 people in Japan

113 tests per 1,000 people in the Philippines.

186 tests per 1,000 people in South Korea

Most of the rest of the developed countries are testing over 600 per 1,000 people.

The numbers are indeed falling, hospital cases and deaths confirm the low numbers and the good news.

Relative to what? I understand your protestations against various conspiracy theories regarding reporting. However, viewing the pandemic period as a whole in Japan, it is clear that it has been a continuing trend of waves with higher peaks, followed by troughs with higher baselines, whatever metric you use. Vaccination is undoubtedly an important intervention against that, but there is no evidence that is impacting it yet.

Assuming the numbers are accurate, it's hard not to see that people in groups drinking booze have spread the virus a lot.

It's quite remarkable that despite Japan's low testing numbers, the deaths hadn't piled up as much as many countries with high testing numbers.

Either get wasted on booze or let the virus waste you eh?

Number of deaths in Japan is actually very very low compared to many countries with very high testing numbers.

But of course number of deaths is not important, only the number of tests is

It's quite remarkable that despite Japan's low testing numbers, the deaths hadn't piled up as much as many countries with high testing numbers.

Simple don't test for covid and don't have deaths related to covid.

Interesting how last year there were an unusual number of unknown causes pneumonia deaths.

Osaka low numbers make me happy. City is up and running again, notice many more now realising that Covid is not as dangerous as they had been led to believe. The numbers will fall further with the vaccines being given at a fast rate.

BTW on the day of 1,000 cases they tested just over 10,000 people.

Now on Sunday they tested just over 1,500 in all of Tokyo.

Does 1,500 test in a region like Tokyo make sense to anyone, especially considering the weekday testing was between 6,000 and 9,000 per day?

Better check 3-7 rolling average numbers. Or check daily figures across the same days over week (from last Sunday to this Sunday) where testing numbers/situations are nearly identical. Overall, numbers have been falling in key regions and most prefectures.

> Australian government sees a few cases: lock it down and contain it, lives are important.

How come they are sending its national Olympic team to Japan if lives are important? In your logic Japan must be more dangerous and the Australian gov's move is inconsistent and hypocrite. Any criticism from Aussie citizens now under returning lockdown? If Tokyo is to blame for forcing the Olympics over life, Australia is complicit.

Yeah yeah and yeah how do we know the death rate is low in japan its almost like that virus are targeting certain enthicities while the virus dont kill Japaneses. Where are these real Key Point Indicators and analytics coming from?? The whole disaster is half assumption to me.

Simple don't test for covid and don't have deaths related to covid.

Interesting how last year there were an unusual number of unknown causes pneumonia deaths.

Lol

Simple don't test for covid and don't have deaths related to covid.

Interesting how last year there were an unusual number of unknown causes pneumonia deaths.

How many times have you heard of people being diagnosed with a "cold"--even when there are a multitude of different symptoms presented? And then good 'ole sensei writes the prescription for antibiotics to treat them?

Easily believable that proper causes of death are being missed.

They may be trying to hide the number of test numbers, but the @coronatokyonow account on Twitter thankfully updates with the numbers each day. I encourage Twitter users to follow them.

But if the PCR positive results posted each day are really from tests done two to three days before, that would mean the 417 positive cases announced today come from the 1,800 or so tests done on the 30th.

Incredible, and incredibly frustrating.

I had those same symptoms for a couple of times over that pass year since covid! Stay safe @reckless!

@Commodore Perry

Paid like JPY25,000 to have a swab jammed up my nasal passage in order to get a piece of paper with the type of test, result and so forth, written in English. To fly out of Japan.

Was that to fly to the US (judging by your username)? The CDC says the test results can be electronic and can be in languages other than English as long as the airline can read the language. I plan on using one of those ¥3,000-yen PCR tests like the ones they started in Haneda before I fly home for my dad’s funeral this summer.

It's quite remarkable that despite Japan's low testing numbers, the deaths hadn't piled up as much as many countries with high testing numbers.

Japan's reported Covid death rate per capita is higher than almost all her regional neighbors. Even those like Taiwan and SK with higher population density.

I love Japan, but lets call things as they are. There is nothing "remarkable" happening until all resources are poured into stopping the spread, and rapid vaccination. Neither of these are happening.

I love Japan, but lets call things as they are.

Yup.

It's actually quite remarkable that despite Japan's low testing numbers, the deaths hadn't piled up as much as many countries with high testing numbers.

Antqiuesaving:

Japan a highly developed country is in par with developing countries like the Philippines which is actually testing more than Japan.

Absolutely disgraceful. Logic dictates that if you are going to hold the Olympics, it is in your best interest to get vaccinations done quickly and set up free testing in as many locations as possible. But no, things go south instead. I really do wonder how people define 'highly developed country' nowadays. Number of e-bidets per capita?

klausdorth:

The same question remains all the time:

how many tests were performed. Again something like 2.000 or less?

I'll wait for the news at 19:00 to get more info.

The question does NOT "remain all the time" if you know where to get the information from.

The data is ALWAYS available from Tokyo Metropolitan government home page.

https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/cards/number-of-tested/

It's actually quite remarkable that despite Japan's low testing numbers, the deaths hadn't piled up as much as many countries with high testing numbers.

And how do you know that?

Without testing no one knows the actual number of deaths in Japan related to covid because so few were tested.

One thing we do know is that 2020 was very low year for influenza related pneumonia deaths and a high year for "unknown cause" pneumonia deaths.

Now we know the number of influenza pneumonia deaths because every clinic, hospital and doctor's office can test for influenza but not covid especially last year.

So what was the cause for the high number if unknown non influenza pneumonia deaths?