Japan expands COVID state of emergency to 3 areas near Tokyo and Osaka

And we have news on Yahoo Japan (in Japanese - link below) -

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/8f6ee02f5076952f0d7e5551b76d1e7a8e9d96bb

One person in his 50's age was rejected by 100 hospitals in Tokyo area and it took more than 8 hours to to find a hospital for him to be admitted - 50 kms away from his residence

This is the medical strain that Omi and experts have been warning about all along but few media covers such things...

Near-zero sense of crisis around Tokyo.

We're clamping down on mostly vaccinated Olympians but for everyone else, it's business as usual.

More WFH; less WTF, please.

So what? Emergency protocols based on last year's virus while there are so many more virulent mutations. It's not even playing catch up, the government is stuck at square one while the virus continues to out-pace Suga, Nishimura, Kato, and the rest of the clown show.

The news are slowly leaking out about how poor the organization is at ground level

See this news in Asahi about 63,000 drives been moved to Tokyo from all over Japan for use of buses related to Olympics - link below -

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14409081

Their place of living is like a prison (as per one driver)

No PCR test done daily

Share bathroom, no privacy

Meals are not provided and they have to manage at their own costs

Officially supposed to work for 8 hours but end up working 12 hours routinely

This side of Olympics does not get covered much in media and people are not aware of such things

"We will conduct antivirus measures to make this declaration the last (COVID-19) emergency."

This won't age well.

These SOEs just get more and more risible each time.

Waisted effort proven time after time again keep risnsing and repeating failures I’m gonna get my drunk on regardless

Well that’s 2 years of holidays gone, should get a vacation but that’s on hold, nice job. I’m going to the beach alone…..it’s closed. Ok I’m going to the local shopping center, thank god that’s open.

At least the vaccine is getting out there and deaths are very low, we are getting there. Once the younger ones have access to it… just a few more months. Sure nobody follows the SOE but at least we ain’t down under.

*The central government also wants the public to refrain from crossing prefectural borders in principle.*

What Japanese is this a translation of? The use of "in principle" doesn't make much sense in the context it kept being used when it comes to the "urgings" from the inept governemnt.

It means it will bite you, but it didn't put its dentures in.

now it’s holidays people from tokyo will travel and spread the virus to places like kanazawa.

Suga told a press conference on Friday, "We will conduct antivirus measures to make this declaration the last (COVID-19) emergency." He also said the government will aim to have over 40 percent of the public fully vaccinated by late August.

Does this mean, that after late August, the SOE is finished for good, and that everything goes back to normal?

Seems the government now realizes the only way out of this mess is to vaccinate the masses. Shame they didn't start earlier.

Still no stay at home lockdown, so what does it even mean? The actions are completely unrelated to the issue with some liquior and weird karaoke bias/fetish

Yet Tokyo Disney (in Chiba) has made no announcement of closure and is scheduled to be open all month.

Like most things lately, ‘BUBBLES’ are exempt.

now it’s holidays people from tokyo will travel and spread the virus to places like kanazawa.

Excellent. Mass infections are the only way to curb the spread. Way more effective than an untested vaccine.

I'd love to know which restaurants are going to allow you to enter without wearing a mask?

I haven't heard of one that doesn't allow you in. Actually most of the places that I know of publicly advertise that they are not complying with the rules and quite a few are serving drinks until the early morning hours.

The central government also wants the public to refrain from crossing prefectural borders in principle.

Well over half the workers in Tokyo commute daily into the city from across a prefectural border.

Are they that stupid?

We will conduct antivirus measures to make this declaration the last (COVID-19) emergency."

This won't age well.

They’ll probably edit it to add “this week” at the end.

I saw the news this morning of Tokyo people packing highways heading to beaches in Chiba and Shizuoka. Of course the beaches, parking spots and all of the shops near them were open.

Way more effective than an untested vaccine.

Over 2bn administered and a year in, seems pretty tested to me.

99% of deaths in UK and US now unvaccinated people, what more proof do you need exactly?

Over 2bn administered and a year in, seems pretty tested to me.

99% of deaths in UK and US now unvaccinated people, what more proof do you need exactly?

Long term effects?

Besides that, chances of getting seriously sick are

Like most things lately, ‘BUBBLES’ are exempt.

I've got the perfect hymn for these Olympics: I'm forever blowing bubbles:

I'm forever blowing bubbles,

Pretty bubbles in the air,

They fly so high, nearly reach the sky,

Then like my dreams they fade and die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ97jkVnX0A

Cash!!!!!!!!

Like the Olympic athletes on their way out of Japan, I too found that the ‘exit’ led to a much much better situation…

If they did more tests everyday and made them freely available, then the true numbers could be seen and it wouldn't be that bad if it reached 59,000, a day because people are not dying or getting serious conditions

Suga said earlier he believes legislation that would enable the government to impose the kind of hard lockdowns seen in many major cities abroad last year would "not suit" the Japanese people.

Suga got this one right. Who in their right mind would want to give these government fools any more power than they already have?

i noticed that both the UK and US officially use the term 'fully vaccinated' for people who have received their two doses. with Israeli's lining up for a third round, i wonder what term they will use to distinguish between people who still ostensibly fall under the 'fully vaccinated' umbrella and those who have been vaccinated but are now in dire need of a booster shot.

At this point scientifically speaking only immunocompromised people have been demonstrated to benefit from a booster, for the rest of the population there is no scientific justification for it. So there is no difficulty, the definition of fully vaccinated people has not changed, except maybe for people like you that feel they need to consume anything that is offered even if the experts do not recommend it.

The medical system is always under strain here, period. Too many people and not enough doctors. People being refused by emergency care for injury or women going into labor is far from nothing new.

I'll bet that most bed occupants aren't even covid infected, just the regular old folk that live till a 100 and take up space.

They make it sound as if every hospital occupant is a covid infected individual.

"The train was as packed as ever," said Tetsu Shiozawa, 46, at JR Kannai Station near the Kanagawa prefectural government office, doubting the effectiveness of the emergency declaration.

Of course it was

Yoshitaka Yamazaki, a 73-year-old lawyer, said at JR Osaka Station that he felt the train hub was as crowded as before the spread of the coronavirus, adding that he believes most of those out on the streets are young people "with little sense of caution."

Surely, Mr Yamazaki (being in a high risk group) should be working from home and not be out on the crowded streets?

PSYOPS ... but without the PSY.

2 or 3 months ago about 1/3 of the Yankees baseball team tested positive for Covid after they had all been fully vaccinated. Such a large proportion of such a small group was very telling. Two days ago in Massachusetts 74% of new infections were in fully vaccinated people and 80% of new hospitalizations because of Covid were among the fully vaccinated.

Yeah according to the CDC report: among the 5 hospitalized, one was not vaccinated, he was in his 50s and had multiple underlying medical conditions. Four additional, fully vaccinated patients aged 20–70 years were also hospitalized, only two had underlying medical conditions.

A year ago, before vaccines were available and when many were saying vaccines were years away, I thought lockdowns during the summer were a bad idea, better let the virus run its course during the summer when the deaths are low.

Now we have vaccines, and hopefully most vulnerable people have taken it. So why have lockdowns during summer, while the death count is very low?

And since the benefits of vaccine are not so clear, seeing the above Massachusetts outbreak in a highly vaccinated population, hopefully they will make ivermectin available, if not they will have blood on their hands...

Now we have vaccines, and hopefully most vulnerable people have taken it. So why have lockdowns during summer, while the death count is very low?

Precisely to keep that death count very low, it is not so difficult, except of course for people that actively try to disregard the very clear evidence of the dangers of new variants.

And since the benefits of vaccine are not so clear, seeing the above Massachusetts outbreak in a highly vaccinated population, hopefully they will make ivermectin available, if not they will have blood on their hands

You are contradicting yourself in your effort to justify your double standards, how can benefits of vaccine be "not so clear" while "the death count is very low"? That is precisely one of the clearest effects of the vaccine, that supplemented with social distancing until herd immunity gets closer can protect a lot of people from not only death but also very serious complications.

You are contradicting yourself in your effort to justify your double standards, how can benefits of vaccine be "not so clear"

Yeah, because in the Mass. outbreak, the percentage of vaccinated among the infected and hospitalized was greater than the overall vaccination percentage.

Where is the benefit?

Yeah, because in the Mass. outbreak, the percentage of vaccinated among the infected and hospitalized was greater than the overall vaccination percentage.

And the deaths? which is the point you made? again contradicting yourself?

Lack of proper care combined with the delta variant explains very nicely increased infections, but once again the vaccine is doing its work protectin people from the worst complications and death.

You trying really hard to ignore deaths is terribly obvious, that is the clearest benefit from vaccines, something you already recognized (until you contradicted yourself). That just let people see that your interest is nmisrepresent vaccines as much as you can, even if that means contradicting yourself.

Yeah, because in the Mass. outbreak

Are we back on that one!

The Massachusetts outbreak is limited to a single location Provincetown, Cap Cod.

A quick look and one would realise Provincetown has the largest by percentage of people living with HIV. This is because for decades Provincetown has been a Haven for these people with dozens of support centres, etc..

Even if vaccinated the probably of the immune system of someone with HIV even if they are on all the proper medications is not high.

Why this part is continually left out of the reporting two fold.

Not wanting to stigmatise people even more and it makes for a bigger headline by leaving this fact out.

An ld anti vaxxers just drink it up.

No vaccination means covid rates and, more importantly, hospitalisations will continue to soar.

Yesterday, my husband finally got his first vaccine. The venue was a large gymnasium so far from the nearest station a shuttle bus had to be provided. Most of those he talked to had tried for a long time to book an appointment, many were in vulnerable groups. This is not how you provide a mass vaccination service, especially in a country that is vaccine averse. It’s utterly disgraceful.

Hakman

Great points. Went for a curry early evening with my partner, washed down with a cold pint of beer. Place was full of people relaxing and enjoying their companions company after work. This is called living, not hiding from something that is likely to do you any harm.