Tokyo reports 969 new coronavirus cases; record high 529 in Hokkaido

Seriously thinking of just heading home for couple of months (can work remotely) so I can get the vaccine. If you are not in one of the priority groups here, you'll be waiting until possibly next year, which is unacceptable.

The new strategy is probably to keep the daily number just below 1,000 so it will look "manageable" to the rest of the world ahead of the Olympics circus for which the LDP is so lustful.

The vaccination mess is close to criminal negligence. The private sector needs to handle this, that is us, major event experts in combination with Yamato and Sagawa the worlds best delivery service fully equipped for the task with fantastic distribution system and with the logistic divisions of the convenience store giants, same facilities as the delivery guys and also with cooling trucks.

I wrote to Kono San, called him , the day after his special appointment and even while he does know me I was not dignified with an answer. I predicted this mess if he would give it to bureaucrats.

This is stil the way to go in combination with inoculation teams consisting of docters, nurses, vets and dentists. That is the only way to reach 1 million injections a day

Had I known this was going to happen, I would have trained hard to become an Olympic athlete so I could jump to the front of the vaccine line - which is another disgusting screw up by the government.

@Zoroto, we are thinking the same. Have a place to stay? We have family there, but no health insurance in the states. And with some serious underlying conditions, might not be a good idea for us to go.

Any good international travel health insurance suggestions?

@Kyakusenbi, you do not need Health insurance to get the vaccine in the US I flew back for my vaccine in early April and no longer have health insurance there. It is not required. Just need to show ID for age verification

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_18571.html

Nationwide, 123 dead from today's stats. That's a new record again.

Of course, these are only the 'official' numbers.

Great idea for those living in fear of Covid to go home and get the shot. More vaccines for people here, kills two birds with one stone.

nonu6976

Seriously thinking of just heading home for couple of months (can work remotely) so I can get the vaccine. If you are not in one of the priority groups here, you'll be waiting until possibly next year, which is unacceptable.

You're lucky if you can do this. I can't get the vaccine 'back home' either, as I'm officially living in Japan. Some countries require you to be a resident there in order to get the vaccine - citizenship isn't enough.

@Judge Smails.

Thanks for the info.

It is the underlying conditions I am worried about in case something happens while there and not being insured there.

Zoroto is correct about US. You do not need to be US citizen as you cannot ask for proof of residency.

I know some Japanese citizens that got vaccinated in US while there in Golden Week. Not very difficult to fly to US. Just need to show negative PCR test to depart Japan.

Help me understand the logic of going back to your home country to get the vaccine IF you are at low-risk.

If you are doing it to protect Japanese residence it won't hardly help. 40% of the Japanese adult population doesn't want the vaccine.

Vinke:

You're lucky if you can do this. I can't get the vaccine 'back home' either, as I'm officially living in Japan. Some countries require you to be a resident there in order to get the vaccine - citizenship isn't enough.

I think people like Kurisupisu knows how to get around this problem? Kurisupisu: any advice on how people can do what you did?

7,000 new cases in a day nationally. That averages out to nearly 50,000 a week. Pardon my bluntness, but Japan’s anti-virus measures and SOEs aren’t worth squat!

Those Hokkaido numbers definitely due to selfish Tokyoites going there for Golden Week holidays.

And what's worse, they came back to Tokyo!

@nonu6976

*Seriously thinking of just heading home for couple of months (can work remotely) so I can get the vaccine. If you are not in one of the priority groups here, you'll be waiting until possibly next year, which is unacceptable. *Welcome to Japan if you are a foreigner what do you expect? Privileges to be cast to the front of the line? Best to think again and follow your mindset!

Kanagawa seems to be hiding behind the shadows of Tokyo and below everyones

radar. The numbers for Kanagawa have been super low for a very long time, considering

the proximity to Tokyo and the fact that a lot of people work in Tokyo and leave in Kanagawa

it beggars believe that the numbers can be that low. Last time I checked tests there were

below 4K.

@drlucifer

Kanagawa seems to be hiding behind the shadows of Tokyo and below everyones

radar. The numbers for Kanagawa have been super low for a very long time, considering

the proximity to Tokyo and the fact that a lot of people work in Tokyo and leave in Kanagawa

it beggars believe that the numbers can be that low. Last time I checked tests there were

below 4K.

Well they're doing better than Chiba, then.

One of the biggest prefectures in all of Japan, is well-known for bringing the flu into Tokyo every winter season, and yet we've been doing about 700 tests a day here. Anyway, the doctors here told me from the beginning that Chiba was simply not testing.

I'll never forget that: "Your best bet is Tokyo."

By the way, a young man in his twenties from Kyoto just died at home from pneumonia caused by COVID-19.

He had no underlying conditions and was in perfectly good health. Though he actually managed to get a PCR test and tested positive, there were no hospital beds available for him. So he was left to die at home.

I knew when I was sick that I would either survive it alone or die alone. I was fortunate enough to survive.

But for the past year, I have been sick with worry wondering how many others were and are silently suffering the way I did. And it makes me so angry thinking of the injustice and cruelty of how many young people will be left to try and survive on their own - and then if they do, end up with the long-hauler damage I'm also suffering.

Now it's happening, and yet nothing here is changing.

It's beyond horrific.

https://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/articles/-/563448

^ The news about the young man (Japanese page).

Thoughts go out to his family,

Young people still have an almost 0 percent chance of dying.

He was just extremely unlucky

That this story makes the news proves the rarity.

I'll start to worry when people dying in their 20's 30's doesn't make the news.

The Japanese avoid the rain more than covid so I bet the coming rainy season will have a greater effect than this soe but that won’t be acknowledged by the LDP. Whole thing is a shambles, putting it politically! If the Olympic happen I’ll eat my head!

He was just extremely unlucky

He was unable to access medical care and treatment due to the overstressed health system. That is not just unlucky, and to act as if it was an immutable, inescapable whim of the universe is frankly offensive, negligent and makes you culpable.

As an aside, can you provide news stories for the official 21 deaths reported in the 20-39 age bracket in Japan as of 5 May 2021 according to Toyokezai:

https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html

@Waywardnihon

He was just extremely unlucky

He was unable to access medical care and treatment due to the overstressed health system. That is not just unlucky, and to act as if it was an immutable, inescapable whim of the universe is frankly offensive, negligent and makes you culpable.

Thank you for a kind and reasonable response to that drivel.

As another twenty-something who was left at the beginning of this pandemic to either die or survive it on my own, I wept for a few hours after hearing this young man's story. I know exactly what he mentally and physically must have been going through in that situation. It is beyond Hell. Ironically enough, "days of hell" was trending in Japan just yesterday, and that seems accurate here right now in a place where you can rely neither on testing and treatment nor a vaccine. (Did you hear about how they accidentally injected saline water into a bunch of people instead of the actual vaccine and shall now have to re-do all of them? The incompetence here is actually astounding.)

I am also curious about the 21 deaths reported in the 20-39 age range. I'm sure that will be kept hush-hush however. Olympics, after all.