Cabinet adopts new roadmap of coronavirus measures

There has to be a new law enacted which forbids hospitals from turning away patients-too many large spoilt egos in the mix in Japan.

The government aims to gradually expand social and economic activities but is still careful about easing border control for foreign tourism.

Those of us with family abroad are ignored yet again. Not everyone travels for 'business' or for a jolly you know.

Name and shame for hospitals who cheat on corona-subsidy programmes, resist reforms.

$10 bucks says foreign tourists won't be allowed in until 2024.

@Northernlife and Alex Are you both predicting that Corona is finished in Japan? No more waves despite what we see in Europe and Singapore with even higher vaccination rates?

People still think the idea is to stamp out covid? They must be joking. Theres $billions more to be made. Of course more waves are coming.

on the other hand, ruling party LDP government decreases hospitals and beds with using tax.

Nearly 2 years in and very low infections now they want to increase the bed numbers give me a break..just to think people actually believe these clowns..

What now ? Too little too late

@Northernlife and Alex Are you both predicting that Corona is finished in Japan? No more waves despite what we see in Europe and Singapore with even higher vaccination rates?

I sure hope you're right...

klausdorth

75 percent vaccinated, on the other hand 25 percent are not. The inoculation for those who are not at risk developing serious effects should be mandatory!

Why? If the vaccination protects you from the virus, what concern of yours is it if other people make a personal decision about risk? Or are you saying the vaccination that demand is ineffective? Curious.

How about measures to try to increase the number of medical professionals, either by encouraging the young or importing them from other countries? Those things will be only deathbeds if nobody there to help them.

What now ? Too little too late

Our “leaders” wouldnt have it any other way.

The fact that places like Japan are still treating SARS-CoV-2 as the black death, even when there is a highly effective vaccine for which most people have already been vaccinated, so any out of the ordinary risk from the virus is mostly off, just shows how 2 years of constant fear of anxiety makes it very difficult for people to just let it go.

If at this point you are still fearful for COVID-19, even after vaccinated, you need to seek therapy, but like it always happens with this kind of things, people never want to accept when they have these kind of problems, and prefer to continue blaming the world for their irrationality.

Now that treatment options are available, the virus has become endemic, and herd immunity is close, it is high time to end this virus panic and go back normal life.

Every single available hospital bed will be filled, procedures will be postponed, ambulances will have to seek hospitals that would even take patients. 

I don't think you are even aware what is the legal situation of SARS-CoV-2 in this country.

The virus is classified in a special category, which is the main reason why most hospitals in this country will not treat people with Covid-19, so no, even in this doomsday scenario (which ignores not only the reality of more than 80% of the population getting already 1 shot of the vaccine, but the fact that most of the people who are still unvaccinated are children and people who are not deemed as vulnerable, and therefore even if there is a widespread outbreak in the unvaccinated group, it is unlikely to be as deadly as it was before), unless Japan reclassifies SARS-CoV-2, there is no way at all for most healthcare resources to be used to fight SARS-CoV-2.

 Europe unfortunately, exactly right now, shows that not only does it get as deadly as it was befire, it gets worse.

You are not looking at things objectively, and you are letting yourself be misguided by sensationalist news. There is a rise on cases in Europe, yes, and there are going to be also a rise in number of hospitalizations. But the type of hospitalization right now is not the same as in the peak of the pandemic, when a lot of vulnerable people where just showing with sudden cytokine storms to die in a ventilator.

It is more similar to the regular winter season Pneumonia raise. (Yes, sadly even in regular winter season hospital capacity cannot keep with the number of cases. It is sad because before COVID-19 no one even cared about it). It can still go higher than in a "normal" year, because of lack of long standing immunity for many people who have no yet got infected or the vaccine, but it is not at all the same as it was at the start of the pandemic, or last winter.

The media just do not want to let this go, and will dramatize the situation, even if it is absolutely not comparable, because scarry and anxiety inducing news sell, but I would say, look at the objective data.

The CFR has gone down all over Europe even as cases are increasing. This virus will not go away, and it will come back each winter. Even people vaccinated can and will continue to get infected.

This is a very sensible precaution.

We do not know how many people are going to get infected, and it could easily just get overwhelmed, not to mention that the whole special category is a pain in the ass for all other patients, since now you are required to "prove" you do not have SARS-CoV-2 if you get a fever, and until that point, hospitals will reject you, even if an emergency (A friend of mine almost died because of that last year).

If Japan just reclassified SARS-CoV-2 as a regular disease instead of using specially made categories that do not require to actually asses the risk of the virus to put it in a category that reflects that risk, then by law all hospitals wouldn't be able to reject patients with COVID-19, and the whole "not enough beds" problems would go away, and all other patients would just receive regular care without having to prove they are not "COVID RIDEN".

But the government do not want to do this, specially because if they do that, they lose all legal justification to continue the border restrictions.

Right now border restrictions REQUIRE SARS-CoV-2 to be in the special category. If it gets to a regular category, they wouldn't be able to implement any of the restrictions they are using right now by exploiting the quarantine law.

So, this is all to just continue with this closed border policy.

Great, preparing for the Go to Trouble set to start up again in February. Hospital beds on the ready.

@Taki Mata

A friend of mine was refused hospital admittance with Covid.

Why?

Maybe the government in Japan suddenly realized that by letting in thousands of tourists from China was a big mistake

However, a couple of us took him food and washed his clothes etc

Why haven’t more Japanese been vaccinated?

Vaccines are produced in Japan, the rollout is still lacking.

Yet, the trains and buses and the crowded offices and the millions of office workers shivering on platforms in the cold continue…

Why?

Japan should be free of Covid, base in the daily reports

75 percent vaccinated, on the other hand 25 percent are not

75% fully vaccinated, 80% with one shot. Japan is getting done.