Experts call for more coronavirus tests as positive rate rises

"While Japan chose to limit the number of tests at the outset of the outbreak to avoid straining its medical system..."

No, Japan chose to limit tests to save the Olympics and feel special.

So, only around 1% of the population have been tested. That’s a joke, right?

1% would mean 1,300,000 tested. Population of Japan is around 130,000,000.

So it's actually 0.1% tested.

Why cant the Japanese government learn from how the Koreans seem to have kept it under control and surely its time to take some advice from some health experts and stop letting the bureaucrats make all the decisions.

My local hospital has around 20 staff absent because of the virus.

The hospital still has not tested all the staff to establish the cluster.

Every week the numbers go up and their revenue falls...

Medical experts are urging Japan to test more people 

see? Urging doesn’t work. If the government hasn’t been ceding to the urges, why expect the people to do so?

an explosive spike in infections could go undetected.

I thought that’s the goal

So, only around 1% of the population have been tested. That’s a joke, right?

Tokyo definitely needs to increase the number of people it tests. According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, a whopping 237 people were PCR tested in Tokyo on April 22. Only 167 were tested on April 21. 167 tests in a city of 14 million people.

https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/

With a testing rate of 1,122 tests per million people, Japan currently ranks 68th out of 86 countries when it comes to testing for COVID-19. Albania, Nepal, Vietnam, Ecuador, and Ukraine all report testing at higher rates than Japan. No other G7 countries tests at a lower rate than Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing

With a population of 126.5 million, Japan has tested a grand total of 141,600 people. That is 0.11% of the total population. 0.11%.

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/0000164708_00001.html

What's the problem with the testing? The government need to explain why it is not testing. If only to stop the rumour mill from churning out conspiracy theories.

@PeepingTom

Can't understand people's obsession with constantly calling out for Korea (actually I know why JT'eers would) whilst there are 11 other countries doing far better in terms of "testing".

It's because SK influenced the world in how to handle the crisis with mass testing and a Public Health blitz in ways that no one was doing before. Multiple countries without your angst has credited South Korea. Everyone else took the hint, but oddly and specifically not Japan

About the picture. That guy is "Tiger Mask", a fixture here in Shinjuku for 40 years. A movie about him came out last year. He is not wearing his usual tiger mask but just a flu mask. That is a sign of the times.

Medical experts are urging Japan to test more people for the novel coronavirus and provide their details to grasp the scale of infections in the country, after seeing a recent rise in the rate of people testing positive.

Wasn't this reported yesterday? Rinse and repeat. No change.

The way Japan continues to react to this virus really surprises me. Before any of this started, if someone had asked me ‘how do you think Japan would react to a really serious health pandemic?’ I’d have expected the government to significantly overreact rather than under react.

Not only has the government under reacted, but it stood back and watched what was going on in other countries around the world, and still continues to under react.

The only explanation I can think of, apart from just incompetence, is that the government has made a decision that the fragility of the economy is so dire, the projected mortality from just letting this thing run its course is worth it. If 1m people end up dying - then so be it.

South Korea has tested nearly 200,000 people. The US has tested less than 2,000. Just an example.

"South Korea, which had conducted more than 520,000 tests by April 14.''

Conveluting, complex system that has nobody with sence anywhere near a decision making role. Overseeing the whole shimozol self absorbed entitled old men. Think a recipe for disaster. Thank god the Olympics are cancelled/ postponed had anything happened during that pretty obviously health system would have been overwhelmed. Not too much forward planning going on.

While Japan chose to limit the number of tests at the outset of the outbreak to avoid straining its medical system,

This is downright bull! The ONLY reason was to keep numbers low, to keep the image that things were under control for the Olympic games!

Quit trying to whitewash the truth!

the national average positive rate calculated from cumulative data rose to 10 percent on Tuesday, up from 5 percent until March 21.

The national average positive rate is 10% - however...

The number of those testing positive divided by the number of tests administered in the capital per week stood at 0 to 7 percent between February and mid-March, but rose to 16 percent in the week from March 15, 32 percent in the following week, and 63 percent in the week from April 12.

...the average positive test in Tokyo has now shot up to 63%.

Just imagine what the national rate would be if testing was done thoroughly nationwide. I’m sorry to say it, but this is a disaster in the making.

Japan currently ranks 68th out of 86 countries

mistake: Japan currently ranks 70th out of 86 countries

The only reason I can think of for the low amount of testing is that the government does not want to put Covid-19 patients in hospital, because resources are stretched and it endangers health care workers.

Since they cannot get positive cases to stay at home without being hospitalized, they have decided to not bother trying to find them.

This endangers Tokyo and in time, the entire country. The economy across the country is suffering even though lockdown and more testing are probably only necessary in the prefectures where an emergency was first declared.

(the WHO said that ten negatives to one positive is a general indication of enough testing = 9%, so most of Japan is okay, but Tokyo is very high)

Can't understand people's obsession with constantly calling out for Korea (actually I know why JT'eers would) whilst there are 11 other countries doing far better in terms of "testing".

Proximity? Similarities in terms of demographics?

South Korea actually ranks 30th in terms of testing on a per capita basis. Japan, on the other hand, is firmly ensconced in 70th place.

Iceland has a population of 360,000.

South Korea has a population of 52,000,000.

It seems a bit off to be comparing the two.

The top 10 countries in terms of testing on a per capita basis all have small populations.

On the other hand, Italy and Germany are in the top 15 whilst the US is at 26th, the UK sits at 36th and France at 38th.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing

No staff testing my hospital. If you are seriously sick a home for three days, you can get a test.

we are both worried. We are both healthy, but there is a possibility we could transmit it to patients, who 90% are elderly with an array of existing conditions.

more testing please!

It's not fair to solely blame COVID-19 when there are usually a bunch of other underlying causes for each COVID-19 fatality.

I am tired of reading BS like this. This thinking says to me that folks just dont want to accept the fact that COVID is a serious virus, no matter or not if there are any "underlying conditions or causes".

Consider, if there was no COVID these people would still be living! There refute that! A majority of "underlying conditions" such as high blood pressure, diabetes and others, are controlled for the majority of people through medication and other means.

Yet you want to argue that it's because of those conditions they died! NO, they died because they contracted the corona virus, it's that damn simple! It is TOTALLY fair to blame COVID! Quit drinking Trump-juice and wake up!

So, only around 1% of the population have been tested. That’s a joke, right?

Actually it's even less, as many of the people who have tested positive have been re-tested a number of times prior to their being discharged from the hospital.

Down here there was one person who was tested at least 4 times

I think if they had more testing, more people would need to go to hospital, and they're avoiding the conversation about how the hospitals have had no funding and have been full long before this outbreak. Ambulances trying 10-20 hospitals for delivery is a system already in crisis.

Testing is important to help identify areas where the virus is so that Public Health can track it and develop contingency plans to help that and other areas. Nobody has infinite resources and so we all have to apply them where they can have the greatest effect.

Without data that cannot happen.

It's not fair to solely blame COVID-19 when there are usually a bunch of other underlying causes for each COVID-19 fatality.

who cares if they've got underlying condition, these people could have had many more years on their lives if the didnt catch the viurs. Its really pathetic that many only see damage done on a montertary scale, not the 10s thousands of lives lost and their families that have to suffer the burden of a premature death in their families. Never heard these pathetic excuses from people who have actually lost familiy member to this virus.

Every Tom, Dick, and Haruto know that Japan purposely didn't test people to save the Olympics.

Now the excuse is they don't want to overwhelm the Health Care System. That speaks volumes of how unprepared Japan is for any national emergency.

While Japan chose to limit the number of tests at the outset of the outbreak to avoid straining its medical system

Nope. Japan chose to limit the number of tests because they were trying to force the Olympics through. Early on they were using less than 25% of the testing being manufactured domestically on a daily basis. The test kits were there, thy just didn't want to know the numbers.

What country in its right mind would artificially restrict access to testing when they knew that a virus is spreading in the community? Avoid straining the medical system eh? How strained is the medial system going to be after letting this thing fester and spread in the community for weeks/months while the bureaucrats deny the inevitable because the numbers of tested positive cases are low.

Hakodate hasn't even tested 100 people out of the population of 200,000. The hospitals can't handle the more rigorous standards of care for corona so they're just full if untested pneumonia patients.

This article is incorrect. Testing wasn’t done not to avoid strain on the health system, which is a stupid reason anyway, but because Abe said it was a waste of resources.

@Roger Jolly

You really think Sweden is taking the right approach? :

In Sweden, a total of 16,755 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in, with 812 new cases registered between Thursday and Friday. The death toll is now 2,152.

Let's compare it to the neighbours, shall we. All of these countries have a very similar culture, after all (reg.hygiene, for example). Norway: 7,444 cases, 199 deaths. Finland: 4,395 cases, 177 deaths.

Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has already admitted their curve is going to the wrong direction, and that they have more deaths, than they estimated.

I LOVE your photo, but what does it have to do with the subject? or is that the point?

Moderator: Perhaps it shows how this man is dressing to protect himself from the virus.

I mean.. you only have a 99% chance of survival if you contract this virus...

youll have a 100% chance of surviving the virus if you dont get infected.

get your family infected and roll the dice, goodluck

Japan has so far conducted polymerase chain reaction tests on more than 130,000 people for the pneumonia-causing virus, a figure sharply lower than many other countries including South Korea, which had conducted more than 520,000 tests by April 14.

From Canada.ca. What's Japan's excuse?

COVID-19 in Canada

April 24, 2020, 11:00 a.m. EDT

Number of people tested

643,398

Confirmed cases

42,739

Probable cases

11

Deaths

2,197

Testing no testing, still doesn't change that its been 33 days no money in the bank, and have ended up with no job to go to. Where is the support money promised by Abe.

and that an explosive spike in infections could go undetected.

As pointed out previously, other medical experts have already stated that the “influenza deaths” in Japan are already much higher than usual despite the lower number of cases this year. The undetected are just being spilled over to other causes. So no problemo, Japanese style is dodgy but still working fine.

Oh god reading about urging first thing in the morning gives me an urge! Back in a moe.

The guy in the photo used to hang around in Shibuya some 20 years ago, for whatever reason school girls used to hang out with him, still has all the same junk hanging off him. Always though he was weird.

Hope you're getting where this is going.

Yes. As my dad used to say, you can't argue with **...

Free safe test sites now please ~ Thank you xo

Talk is cheap - shut up and test.

https://youtu.be/MxWKoONKeb0

What he said was the Care Home deaths was higher than expected and authorities wanted to find out why. You do know the virus ravaged Care Homes in the UK and there was a strict lockdown there.So...?

That many care home deaths in the UK with a lockdown. Just imagine how bad it would have been without a lockdown.

Quite the character you often see in Shinjuku wandering the streets. I do not think he is homeless but I hope he is doing alright in this pandemic.

@JCosplay

@Do_the_hustle Well in all seriousness, what is the average percentage of testing amongst countries?

You can find all these info and much more under below link. As of yesterday overall the European countries have so far tested between 2 and 3% (20-30 times more than in Japan comparatively). USA about 1.5% and NYC alone close to 4%.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

When the majority will be immune, you will have a sort of herd immunity and also the weak ones will have less risks of contracting it and more possibilities to get proper cure in hospitals, in case they get worse.

herd immunity takes around 60% of the population becoming infected at 1% mortality rate your looking at around 770,000 dead Japanese, doesn't any body really think that is a better option than staying home!?

Suicides in Japan are a fraction of this total

@wtfjapan... excellent comments!

Nothing these medical experts say will make Japan change its policy.

Japan is all about suppressing teste and therefore suppressing reported numbers, so the media can claim what a great job the Japanese government is doing. Japanese government only treat this as a PR project, they have no care for the Japanese people, because they know no matter what happens, Japanese people will always support the LDP.

These poor medical experts probably getting passive-aggressive calls now threatening them and their families and requesting them to apologize and instead say what a great job the government is doing, and there’s no coronavirus in Japan.

More than 400,000 people have now been tested for coronavirus in the UK, as a row has broken out over the meagre levels of testing in the country.

More than five weeks ago NHS England announced it would scale up testing capacity to 10,000 a day, but that number wasn't reached until April 1.

At that rate it would take more than 18 years for each person in the UK to be tested.

And Health Secretary Matt Hancock's promise to dramatically ramp up coronavirus tests to 100,000 a day has been thrown into doubt after NHS leaders told him their testing targets were "jam tomorrow".

Germany, which is considered to be one of the best-prepared countries in tackling the crisis, is carrying out an estimated 500,000 tests per week and has a death toll of around 5,000, roughly a quarter of the UK's total....

Aha, Now how did I miss that!?

I LOVE your photo, but what does it have to do with the subject? or is that the point?

"Moderator: Perhaps it shows how this man is dressing to protect himself from the virus."

Sorry I forgot who I was talking to

@HBJ

The two main reasons for not setting up and wasting a crisis is

1.Politicians seek power, the more the better.

2.Governments seek to govern, the more the better.

Already people in Japan are experiencing a lite form of what is the norm in Spain, the US and the UK.

A colorfully dressed man walks in Shinjuku Ward in Tokyo on Friday

This guy sets the example for social distancing.

@RogerJolly Sweden has a high death rate among the elderly, and overall death rates are up to six times higher than their neighbours. I don’t think their do nothing approach is working.

For how long will this self deceit and feel good at the low numbers.

It is unbelievable that almost all the experts who appear on TV opine how the low numbers are credence of the distancing bearing dividend with no mention that testing is low.

It remains a mystery why the government is reluctant to increase testing. One test cost almost 20,000 yen, don't know whether the government is trying to minimize cost or herd immunity been adopted.

Agree that's a freaky photo. I want to put everything into the laundry

 And that mass testing could compromise a medical system that was not sufficiently equipped or prepared is a fact,

Nice try. I'll take that and raise you Korea's timely response. Anyone with two gray cells to rub together knows they delayed because they hoped that somehow the virus would skip japan keeping the olympics in line all the while forgetting it wouldn't only be natives competing in the global event. It is a massive incompetent failure of gigantic proportions. Whatever is happening now is on their incompetent heads. No one else's.

I don't know what's that photo assembles this column Japan's situation about coronavirus. Is he a walking covid-19? For me, yes!

Although it looks like a tragic-comedic-farce (tcf) it is not.Pull back the curtains and we can see that there is a good deal of manipulation at play.

The tcf of having businesses close down, lack of compensation for all businesses, piss poor response from the government ie 2 cloth masks, Abe’s failures (fall guy) and Koike’s promotion (solution) are all designed to alter Japanese society.Promised money being delivered after GW to force people to stay at home-government control in the extreme!

And nobody objects?

Before the tcf there was already massive amounts of money being used to nationalize private companies in Japan.

Yes, the government is the major shareholder in all of Japan.

When the tcf has played out there will be millions of businesses bankrupt and ready to be snapped up or razed to make way for a bright new world that is already in the planning.

Could it be people want more testing so

a) they can keep getting big money for tv appearances and funding from the government

B) Justify the whole emergency

Japan is the next Italy, the next Spain the next New York etc etc

Well its the end of april and still people post wait to next week

I suspect Japan is actually muddling through this quite well, as in low infection rate and mortality per capita, especially relative to how urbanized Japan is and how close it is to China. Only about 20 people under 60 years old have died. I say this as someone who is 51.

However, I think the government have been incompetent and can take no credit for the slow spread of the virus. Luck and existing societal factors are getting Japan through this, not judgment and leadership. Even if Covid-19 is defeated, the country remains an open goal for the next pandemic, where luck and societal factors may not work in Japan's favour.

Dishonest Abe sacrificed people in misguided attempt to “save” Olympics. This is your legacy.

The numbers of testing does not reduce the number of infection cases or resultant deaths. It certainly would, if there was an established effective treatment. But there isn't. In the early stages two months ago it would have made a difference. But now because it is fully community spread, tracing has now become mostly futile.

Japan never had the unilateral authority to keep, cancel or postpone the games on it's own as the IOC had the call. Which is exactly what happened. And that mass testing could compromise a medical system that was not sufficiently equipped or prepared is a fact, it has and is happening in other countries.

If there is widespread testing, you will find the virus is widespread. The mortality rate will drop significantly. This won't help big pharma with sales when they come up with 'the cure'. And it doesn't help mass-media and local governments to perpetuate their fear-campaigns which give them leverage for their own agendas.

The lockdowns are clearly doing far more damage than the virus.

I'd rather they (the medical experts ) spend money on testing treatment and prevention.

Excessive testing will tell us nothing new.

If doable sure why not, but if this is later being used to make excuses for not delivering on a vaccine ( yes you the medical experts) then no thank you.

Why ? Because this (the virus) can and likely will come again and even stronger.

@Do_the_hustle Well in all seriousness, what is the average percentage of testing amongst countries?

"Yes. As my dad used to say, you can't argue with **

Funny; exactly my dad's words.

@Peeping_Tom - I totally subscribe to your insightful points - very well stated!

It seems to me that some folks from a certain country across the Sea of Japan with a constant need for validation are trying to make this SARS-CoV-2 into some sort of nationalist race - as if their country ought to receive some sort of plaudits from every other country! Alas, my model is Taiwan, which in my view has done the best job in the world in tackling this virulent pathogen.

Perhaps this Swahili proverb from my native Kenya is apropos for these low-esteem folks: *Chema chajiuza, Kibaya chajitembeza [translated:* One does not need to shout and rave about a good thing - it will sell itself because people recognize how good it is].

Keep on the great work Japan!

Why are people so much concerned? It is well known that the positive recorded in hospital are the tested part, the symptomatic one. If you look at international data available already since more than one month, the rate is quite steady... 60-75% is without symptoms at all. The symptomatic batch is the remaining 15-20%. So, you just have to multiply the hospitalized number by the above percentage to know the average presence of positives... It doesn't take a Nobel prize, nor 130 millions tests to get it. And when you test them all, you can't lock up 70% of a county population for at least three weeks. The only way to cope with the virus is to have most of people contract it and go over it, just like influenza. Also because it is a same family virus... all influenza cases are produced by a different kind of corona virus. When the majority will be immune, you will have a sort of herd immunity and also the weak ones will have less risks of contracting it and more possibilities to get proper cure in hospitals, in case they get worse.

By the way, folks, I really do not understand why so many of you criticize the government for under-reacting... You would have rather stay locked in, without stipends, food, liberty for one-two month or more? Like Italy, France and other parts of Europe? Fined by 4000$ when you take out your dog or go fetching something that government and police deems is not necessary to you? If you are scared of the virus, or are the weak one, stay home! Even if you lock up the country, the virus is not going away. You have to cope with it anyway. You are not going back to normality after one month. Japan, Sweden and few others are the only countries taking the right approach in my opinion. You can't and do not have to stop economy and life. Virus is going to take a toll, yes. But so does influenza every year, among everybody insensitivity: in many country influenza-caused deaths go beyond the 10 thousand; thousands certainly. Nobody complain, nobody cares (because they do not happen all in the same hospital) and nobody lock up anybody for that. Yet people continue to smoke, eat like pigs and kill themselves on alcoholics (not to mention the effects of smog and pollution). People are given a choice. Certainly, my liberty might lead to cause somebody to get infected (I doubt if you are responsible and use proper precautions). But I'd rather be free to chose... particularly how I live. And particularly when that is my constitutional right.

"It's because SK influenced the world in how to handle the crisis with mass testing and a Public Health blitz in ways that no one was doing before. Multiple countries without your angst has credited South Korea."

Really?

I'm going to re-post this just for you then.

"Iceland, for instance, has started offering free testing to its general public, even those with no symptoms and are not under quarantine.

Whereas in South Korea, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only recommends testing for symptomatic patients who have come into contact with a patient who tested positive for COVID-19 and those with travel history to a country with known local transmission. Asymptomatic patients are not advised for testing."

"https://www.devex.com/news/a-look-at-covid-19-testing-and-why-country-wide-is-impossible-right-now-96842"

"Everyone else took the hint"

Looks like Korea hasn't taken the hint from Iceland yet.

The number of cases is going down

as the weather is getting warmer.

Hopefully by mid may we can be back to normal

"Iceland has a population of 360,000.

South Korea has a population of 52,000,000.

It seems a bit off to be comparing the two."

Japan has a population of 126,000,000.

Korea has a population of 52,000,000.

It seems a bit off to be comparing the two.

Hope you're getting where this is going.

"@Do_the_hustle Well in all seriousness, what is the average percentage of testing amongst countries?"

"https://www.healthpolicy-watch.org/covid-19-testing-trends-globally-regionally/"

"South Korea has tested nearly 200,000 people. "

South Korea is only 12th on that list.

"Iceland, for instance, has started offering free testing to its general public, even those with no symptoms and are not under quarantine.

Whereas in South Korea, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only recommends testing for symptomatic patients who have come into contact with a patient who tested positive for COVID-19 and those with travel history to a country with known local transmission. Asymptomatic patients are not advised for testing."

"https://www.devex.com/news/a-look-at-covid-19-testing-and-why-country-wide-is-impossible-right-now-96842"

Can't understand people's obsession with constantly calling out for Korea (actually I know why JT'eers would) whilst there are 11 other countries doing far better in terms of "testing".

I mean.. you only have a 99% chance of survival if you contract this virus...

The undetected are just being spilled over to other causes. 

Let me try again.

How do you know that it's not the other way around?

I'm happy to call Japan out on BS when I see it, but in this case the authorities seem to be tallying the numbers correctly.

It's not fair to solely blame COVID-19 when there are usually a bunch of other underlying causes for each COVID-19 fatality.

We need perspective on this as the lockdowns are doing tremendous damage.

And with perspective, we see that it's really not that much worse than seasonal influenza.

JCosplay - @Do_the_hustle Well in all seriousness, what is the average percentage of testing amongst countries?

South Korea has tested nearly 200,000 people. The US has tested less than 2,000. Just an example.