Tokyo reports record high 5,042 coronavirus cases; nationwide tally 15,263

Today number at 5042 - this number is 1,177 more than last week (last week number was 3865) - they must have stopped the count as soon as the number crossed 5000…

By far the highest number for Tokyo and breaching the physiological number of 5000 today - more to come for sure!!!

Okinawa again at record high today at 648….

5,042 coronavirus cases

Another milestone falls.

Well, there goes Obon. I guess we'll all have to stay home indoors now. All governors will demand a nationwide lockdown. Sorry, there is always next year.

Cheers to all those 20 and 30 year olds who just don't care about getting and spreading Covid.

A Kyoto Uni professor on the TV the other day predicted that cases would reach 5,000 by Aug 11th, 10,000 by Aug 28th unless the Minister of Getting a Grip started to do his job.

He hasn't started to do his job.

Cases are going to the moon.

The number of infected people hospitalized with severe symptoms in Tokyo jumped to 135, up 20 from Wednesday

You watch the regular "nothing to worry about" posters change their tune now. They used to say serious cases and deaths are still trending down. Now they will stop talking about the trend and start focussing on the absolute numbers, saying they are low compared to the population.

Meanwhile, for those of us looking at the full picture, this is not good news.

no hope for this country with the current government.

I’ve stopped putting much emphasis on the overall case numbers. But the rise in severe cases and hospitalizations is hard to ignore.

More than than 10 times as many as during the original scheduled time of the Olympics! Truly a testament to victory of what against what was that again?

Maybe it's time to really speed up the vaccinations? These numbers are eye-popping.

Are you blaming the population now, and not the rest of the pandemic "response" from the top?

Fair point, the leadership isn't doing its job, but what are they supposed to do in the absence of having the power to restrict people playing?

The people need to take responsibility, and whilst many are, many aren't and absolutely will not. They'll be here shortly in person to tell you that they have no intention of making any personal sacrifices for the greater good.

Are you blaming the population now, and not the rest of the pandemic "response" from the top?

The response at the top has been basically to do nothing and expect people to use common sense, like not go out eating and drinking. Worst thing the government has done is roll out the vaccine too slowly. But what else would you have them do? Lockdown like in Australia? No thanks.

at least it wasnt 5000!?

doh I meant at least it wasnt 6000

I am not sure who it was who said/wrote we will hit 5000 cases in a week, But you were right on the money.

Not this is a good thing in anyway, and I am not sure what point I am trying make if one at all. But you were right who ever you were.

Spot on @marcelito.

Food shopping today and there are more people than usual getting around with no masks on today too.

It's not just the young ones who have dropped the ball.

Responsibility lies squarely at the feet of the mixed messaging, inept Suga Government, and the IOC knew it.

There is only one possibility to keep this under control again…

a complete shutdown like April 2020!

Fair point, the leadership isn't doing its job, but what are they supposed to do in the absence of having the power to restrict people playing?

Well, here are some things they could of done....

Started vaccinations much earlier.

Changed the law to force hospitals to take corona patients, and to enforce lockdowns.

Built fields hospitals for those less critical but still needing medical attention.

Did I miss anything?

Are you blaming the population now, and not the rest of the pandemic "response" from the top?

you can’t blame the leaders for people being stupid

Did I miss anything?

No, you're right, but they are things they 'could' have done. I meant what can they do now? They seem to have very few tools at their disposal, and the citizens aren't really listening to their appeals to sit still for a bit.

So much for Suga putting Bach in charge of safety and health. This a crazy for being ridiculous. I thought 4,000+ was bad.

Japan isn’t good at enforcing draconian measures if that’s what’s needed. The way for Japan to make it through this is simply perseverance or endurance. This is what we have. I’m not expecting much from the government. Each individual is responsible for for himself it seems.

"IS HURRY THE F UP AND GET PEOPLE VACCINATED. SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS MONTHS AGO!!!"

Already impossible for the majority of Japanese. In my ward, the August and September spots are filled instantly with site crashing as normal. The earliest the vast majority of people can see appointment slots would be October, but I suspect that the majority of Japanese will not have access to vaccines until at least next year.

Japanese national government however have shown little intention of vaccinating its remaining population, but instead have been actively sabotaging the distribution and logistics so that more of the market can be preserved for the domestic vaccines next year.

As hospital beds and oxygens run out, anyone in moderate to severe disease will be at a high risk of dying.

Oh it's not so bad, snuck over 5000. Numbers might plateau now into the weekend. Perhaps we can have a masked holiday after all.

A few nights ago there was a news item on the evening NHK news. It was an interview with a doctor with a small hospital in Tokyo.

It started with him talking about is youngest patient, a baby that cannot stop coughing. Then he talked about not having enough beds, so he was putting families together in the same room.

I know it will never happen here, but him talking about those 2 items needs to be an advert. Then the government pay to flood it across TV.

Somethings dramatic and hard hitting needs to be done quickly.

This is of course very bad. and it should be clear from my daily posts that I'm very angry about how utterly inept this government is.

Regardless though, it should be pointing out the rate of increase is at least falling. My own prediction of 6000 this week was wrong as a result. So I'm scraping the barrel here, but this is some form of good news. You can see this clearly if looking at the 7 day moving average graph.

Although I do wonder if we are seeing a compression effect as the upper limits of Japans toy testing capacity are being reached..

The Olympics is a symbol of Japan, and hence the world's victory, over the scourge of the coronavirus- Suga... did anyone notice my cool biz tan suit symbolizing my relaxed, devil may care attitude during this crisis　？

The govt asked a some companies to have as many people work from home between the 10th and the 13th. Sounds like SOMEBODY saw this coming. The top "leadership" just isn't taking it seriously enough.

The result of the 4-day holiday two weeks ago maybe?

Anyways the local Taro doesn't care, because at least Japan's getting golden medals left and right, banzaiiiiiii

I’ve stopped putting much emphasis on the overall case numbers. But the rise in severe cases and hospitalizations is hard to ignore.

I basically agree and think the sever symptom number is what matters. This site has it at 115 for Tokyo...

Same site shows Tokyo hospitalizations at 3399, BUT the fine print says "include those recovering at designated hotels or at home". Who knows what's really going on?!?

@Matej there were some 10 deaths from over 12000 cases

No there weren't - Deaths lag new cases by two weeks or so. SIMPLE logic.

Same site shows Tokyo hospitalizations at 3399, BUT the fine print says "include those recovering at designated hotels or at home". Who knows what's really going on?!?

with the government officially trying to reduce hospitalizations, this numbers wouldn't mean anything to illustrate the situation (like many others)

Ms. Akiko Kurabayashi of JCP proposed in the upper house today to cancel the paralympic and use the Olympic village to house COVID 19 positives which are increasingly sharply and becoming beyond hospital capacity in Tokyo. The village has capacity of 18,000 people and 7,000 nurses are available. "Kyosanto" speaks a good thing sometimes.

Jim: Today number at 5042 - this number is 1,177 more than last week (last week number was 3865)

JT: up 876 from Wednesday

Are you kidding? All those numbers are multiples of 11. How low would you estimate the probability for that? Yes, quite… Trick someone else and continue your celebration of ‘victory over the virus’. Unbelievable, what’s going on here.

13,041 tested - 39% rate

The only good ray of hope I have at this point is that I've noticed significantly less people in the streets at night in my town this week. It was regularly packed with young and happy drunkards for weeks, but they finally seem to have understood that they didn't necessarily need to be out drinking all the time.

At this point, it seems the blame should now shift equally to the population. The last couple weeks have shown lots of the J-population making questionable behavior.

I am seeing more and more people walking around with no masks around town during the day. It is not seniors, but middle age to young people. That explains the numbers.

How about the facts that the death rates have plummeted

I would wait a few weeks until rejoicing about the "plummeting death rate". People who got sick today won't be dying today (is the worst does happen). They will die in the next few days/weeks.

@Jim (first comment)

In what way is 5000 (or any number) a "physiological" number, maybe it is a different word you are thinking of...

(maybe check "physiological" in a dictionary...?)

Does that mean 5042 people are gonna die?

Japan is operating its vaccine rollout on a ‘wait and see’ approach. Have you seen enough yet?

Hello, exponential growth. Welcome to Japan. I see that you are “immune” to logic and reason. You’ll fit in well with our political leadership as well as with some here on this (or any other thread).

So many comments, I can't check, but has anyone said 'At least it hasn't reached 6000'?

@tottenhaminremnants

In what way is 5000 (or any number) a "physiological" number, maybe it is a different word you are thinking of...

Thanks for pointing it out

My bad - auto correction issue - should read as "Psychological" number/milestone

People were projecting this 5,000 number to be breached this week and it did ...

Honestly the only people I see walking around without masks, indoors or out, are foreigners. I'm not saying it's their fault but I can understand the Japanese public's antipathy towards us. Well then there are the clubs and bars in roppongi that are still open all night and once you drink enough you don't care anymore and these establishments to enforce mask wearing anyway so...

marcelito:

I will bring the cases under control without fail" Suga

" Japanese superior model has beaten the virus " Abe

Tokyo will have capacity of 60,000 PCR tests per day " Koike

" Olympic bubble is safe and secure" " Olympics present zero risk to Japanese population"

Bach & Suga

" I,m responsible for the health & safety of Japanese people " Suga

They truly live in a parallel universe don't they.

Don't forget:

" Foreign politicians keep asking me how we Japanese manage to keep the numbers low " Aso

At least I hasn’t reached 6000….

just saying for @Pukey2

Every country needs it's own wake up call to spur it into action. This is usually in the form of lots of death. Sad human fact.

Honestly the only people I see walking around without masks, indoors or out, are foreigners. 

They're definitely one of the guilty parties. Not all, though.

But personally I've noticed that the main maskless groups are:

1) As you state, foreigners.

2) Yankis and other カス (mods: it's not aimed at another poster and it's a pretty accurate description)

3) Recently, more and more elderly people, who have presumably had their shots and now consider a mask unnecessary and/or are unaware that they can still catch and transmit Covid.

Please avoid the usual answers, lock everyone down and force them to take the vaccine. Other than those two things, anything goes.

"Except stuff that actually works, tell me what else the government could do???" is basically what you just asked.

It is hard for non scientific people to worry about something like a virus that they cannot see.

Deaths are not really a worthy measure as long covid is a very real health threat.

Does Japan government give details of how many of today's cases are Delta Plus or Lambda? Stay safe out there everyone.

Does that mean 5042 people are gonna die?

Yes, of course. We all have to, one day sooner or later. And as obviously nothing is done against corona, I would say, it’s gonna happen very much sooner.

The road to herd immunity. Finally.

The road to new deadly variant

FYP

People in their 20s (1,600 cases), their 30s (1,120), their 40s (811) and their 50s (552) accounted for the highest numbers, while 670 cases were aged under 19.

5042-1600-1120-811-552-670=289 were 60+ .

I want to know how many of these 5042 were vaccinated.

Does that mean 5042 people are gonna die?

No, but it means 5042 people had the opportunity to pass the virus onto at least one other person each before they tested positive.

All the comments all the government promises but nothing has changed.

Over 5,000 but testing was lowered again and it will be lowered again and Sunday been will see a fraction of the testing from Monday.

And yes been will here the same platitudes from bthe covid deniers and the low deaths, blah blah blah.

But nothing has changed and obviously by lowering testing the government still thinks it can fake it's way out of this.

There should be NO DOUBT in any ones mind as to where this is heading.

EIGHT deaths today.

That's right.

*EIGHT** deaths today.*

That's right.

There's got to be a word for this kind of thinking. "I can use dead people to push my opinions, so I will. It's not as if it was anyone I knew or cared about, anyway".

Up we go again - and still no change of action from the government.

They have no plan. No idea of what to do. They are too stubborn to take the advice of those in the medical profession i.e. those who know what they are talking about.

I don't think the government realises just how close this is now to completely falling off the cliff. If most of these new cases are the Delta variant then today's 5,000 could double and triple in no time at all.

O'BrienToday  07:29 pm JST

*EIGHT** deaths today.*

That's right.

There's got to be a word for this kind of thinking. "I can use dead people to push my opinions, so I will. It's not as if it was anyone I knew or cared about, anyway".

It's called listing facts. No drama or scare mongering. Just the facts.

Tokyoite

Goid points, 8 deaths from over 120 million people.Less than an average days flu deaths in winter.

@Zoroto

Open-minded wrote: I am seeing more and more people walking around with no masks around town during the day.  It is not seniors, but middle age to young people. That explains the numbers.

Zoroto wrote: I don't.

Maybe, you are not looking. The numbers say otherwise.

People in their 20s (1,600 cases), their 30s (1,120), their 40s (811) and their 50s (552) accounted for the highest numbers, while 670 cases were aged under 19 and 60s (291).

Post my whole quote, next time.

JoeintokyoToday  04:58 pm JST

Meanwhile, I'm watching the 20k walking walk, which is packed with spectators (idiots?) watching from the sidewalks. With Delta, this is a superspreader event. 2 weeks from now, Tokyo will be reporting over 10,000.

The race is not even in Tokyo. Wait, unless you mean it will be 2 weeks until they reach Tokyo by walking from Hokkaido?

It's called listing facts. No drama or scare mongering. Just the facts.

That would be a fair argument but for the sneering "That's right" at the end of your post.

You folks should stop being so dramatic. Yes, the bodies are piling up, but not from Covid. Don’t want to make light of it, but today 8 people apparently succumbed due to Covid, while the daily death rate in Japan due to a variety of other maladies is approximately 3,700 souls.

Flexibility and creativity were never Japan's virtue.

But this again? be so stubborn to repeat the same mistake over and over again?

They are again closing all the eatery establishment by eight with the none sense thing that Covid will hide during daytime until dawn.

But on the other hand millions of people the major cities like Tokyo Osaka and Nagoya are using on a daily basis trains and subway and they do nothing about it.

Seems that the Japanese Corona is polite enough to avoid the workers that commute to work.

Again,nothing will ever change and this shows that we're basically on our own.

Good job Suga, you got your olympics and have given away millions of vaccines to other countries. End result massive increases in daily covid numbers and a six week waiting list for a vaccine appointment..

MarkToday  07:24 pm JST

There should be NO DOUBT in any ones mind as to where this is heading.

And where is this heading?

The Japanese government response to covid and especially this increase is schizophrenic to say the least.

"Stay home, no wait, go travel, no stay home, no go eat, no, wait wait, ah yes Olympics look look Olympics, spectators yes , I mean no, I mean yes, bubble bubble oh wait, hospitals filling up, no their not, yes they are no, yes, no, yes, no, we are changing policy on hospitalizations because hospitals are filling up, no wait may get full, ....."

Yeah I left a lot out and there is zero grammar, structure, etc.. but that is exactly how the government has been

MarkToday  07:24 pm JST

There should be NO DOUBT in any ones mind as to where this is heading

We all know where lower cases as the weekend testing become lower than today's reported cases and back up on Tuesday after Monday's testing.

And NO! To the LDP fan club, Japan is not target testing or any other name you would like us to believe.

I no real world could "targeted testing drop to 3,000 on every Sunday and back up to over 10,000 on Monday week after week.

That is called manipulation.

Are deaths all that matter? Saw a story on Reddit from a gentleman living in Okinawa who is unable to get routine treatment for gout because the hospitals are full and only taking people on the verge of death. How many more stories like this are out there? Should their plight be considered as well? When is the last time a flu season prevented people with other ailments from receiving routine care?

 Saw a story on Reddit from a gentleman living in Okinawa who is unable to get routine treatment for gout because the hospitals are full and only taking people on the verge of death. How many more stories like this are out there?

I wouldn't take much on Reddit at face value, but yesterday my daughter informed me that the young man the fiance of a very good friend of hers and I know very well has just been diagnosed with throat cancer ( never smoked in his life and a rare type) but his surgery has been delayed until late September because of covid and the hospitals being overwhelmed right now.

This is not hearsay or I read somewhere this is a 27 year old friend of the family.

All these opinions on cases are hard to quantify as we all know the testing process is not adequate to work out how many people have covid any one time.

If you stick to the simple fact of deaths due to covid, you start to get some idea of where we are compared to 3 months ago.

DEATHS 3 MONTHS PREVIOUS:

2021/04/29 = 78

2021/04/30 = 39

2021/05/01 = 83

2021/05/02 = 61

2021/05/03 = 48

2021/05/04 = 51

2021/05/05 = 60

DEATHS LAST SEVEN DAYS

2021/07/30 = 9

2021/07/31 = 9

2021/08/01 = 5

2021/08/02 = 11

2021/08/03 = 10

2021/08/04 = 14

2021/08/05 = 8

@Gaijinjland

Honestly the only people I see walking around without masks, indoors or out, are foreigners.

I don’t think you are looking hard enough. Foreigners not wearing masks are more noticeable because…. they are foreigners.

I was on the train recently and saw a foreign couple, one of whom wasn’t wearing their mask. I looked around the carriage to see how the Japanese passengers were responding and counted 6 Japanese people, young to old, either not with masks or using them as chin warmers.

No community is free of idiots.

@Tokyoite

You have anything else?

Why not list everyday since the start of the pandemic?

Your death list is as usual an attempted at deflection the "hey look at this not that" the same tactic as your other 4 friends though they have flipped a bit more from lower number, to lower severe cases, now like you low deaths because everything else is going up.

Are deaths all that matter?

Apparently so, at least to our learned friends who only see them as a means of furthering an argument.

@Tokyoite

You have anything else?

Why not list everyday since the start of the pandemic?

Your death list is as usual an attempted at deflection the "hey look at this not that" the same tactic as your other 4 friends though they have flipped a bit more from lower number, to lower severe cases, now like you low deaths because everything else is going up.

Maybe we're dealing with thanatophilia (in the non-insalubrious sense of the word, lest I get moderated / kicked out)

I hope people can get vaccinated soon and infection rates fall. It's getting a little scary to say the least.

AntiquesavingToday  08:27 pm JST

@Tokyoite

You have anything else?

Why not list everyday since the start of the pandemic?

Your death list is as usual an attempted at deflection the "hey look at this not that" the same tactic as your other 4 friends though they have flipped a bit more from lower number, to lower severe cases, now like you low deaths because everything else is going up.

I think you would be the first to agree that daily testing is simply not wide spread enough in Japan to give us a real indication of infections. Therefore arguing about it is almost pointless.

Deaths on the other hand are a hard fact. Unless of course they are hiding the bodies (some people do have theory that a conspiracy is underway to exactly that).

Tokyoite Today  08:35 pm JST

I think you would be the first to agree that daily testing is simply not wide spread enough in Japan to give us a real indication of infections. Therefore arguing about it is almost pointless.

Yes I agree 100% the testing is so narrow that it doesn't even give a fraction of the cases and by that fact we also don't know how many have died or will died because they were never tested.

So I am glad you agree the numbers of infected and number of deaths are really unknown but surely higher than the official count.

Can we remind to those people focusing on deaths that Japan can't historically and precisely count them ?

It's mainly because of kodokushi, Lonely-death. Those statistics are hard to come by — the central government doesn't collect them for decades.

And now, lack of testing and post-mortem testing, data partially collected from private clinics or retirement homes added to that, how come you can focus on such unreliable numbers ?

I guess we shouldn't hold our collective breathe waiting for the "95% effective" vaccines to start bring the rate of infection down.

What is the Japanese government going to do about this???.

Got my second vaccine today, looking forward to the rest of the summer.

90% protection is good enough for me,

I can only hope that the electorate hands the LDP its heart on a platter for this level of incompetence.

Many here point out the strange testing and reporting by the government, others call pointing these facts as conspiracy theories and asked for poof.

I would like to remind those that keep denying these facts , low testing, no autopsies, controlled hospitalisation, etc..

That the Japanese government has a long history of covering up health crisises, all the way back to minamata up to tainted blood.

So the idea that the government wouldn't downplay the situation or hide the numbers and facts isn't just speculation it has a long and sad history especially under the LDP.

AntiquesavingToday  08:39 pm JST

Tokyoite Today  08:35 pm JST

I think you would be the first to agree that daily testing is simply not wide spread enough in Japan to give us a real indication of infections. Therefore arguing about it is almost pointless.

Yes I agree 100% the testing is so narrow that it doesn't even give a fraction of the cases and by that fact we also don't know how many have died or will died because they were never tested.

So I am glad you agree the numbers of infected and number of deaths are really unknown but surely higher than the official count.

Nice example of how you twist what you read into what you want to read.

What's interesting though is that you admit to believing "they" are hiding the bodies. That's a bold claim.

The biggest problem right now is doctors and hospitals. Tokyo shuts down after about 100 or so severe cases.

It has been so for almost 2 years now ( embarrassing actually) .

I personally thought once the 65+ are all vaccinated life can start going back to normal but for whatever reason we are still here and posting on daily covid numbers.

For what matters, I noticed that only one of the Japanese nationals I spoke to recently opted to be vaccinated. I think the locals aren't in a hurry, which is puzzling when I know they all queue up every year for the flu jab