Tokyo launches coronavirus drive-through tests

Nothing gets to the Japanese psych than to tell them that our friendly neighbor Korea, did something better. This fast testing has been shown on tv for weeks now but I am still waiting to see a working station in Japan.

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. Pathetic.

With such meager testing, I fear that the government is going to be asking us to stay at home for a long time.

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

Didn’t the Japanese ridicule the drive thru tests when it first came out in South Korea? Why backflip?

This is just for show for foreign media. Japanese government don’t want testing to suppress numbers, they will figure out a way to make this drive through test as few people as possible.

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20200423-00000016-jct-soci

Tokyo numbers have been going down every day after it hit over 200 in order to report lower numbers.

The way the Japanese drive through will likely work is either they reject testing to vast majority of people, or go so slowly so that they test as few as possible. Also only 1 is going up.

Nothing but a publicity stint. Japan and testing is pretty much an oxymoron now.

it's little late but still need to hurry up and set up more outdoor testing locations throughout Japan, outside of the hospitals and clinics ,

now hurry up and set up more before it's too late,

...in a city where relatively few have cars... Why don't they test at train stations?

Because that would actually make testing accessible, which is the opposite of what the Japanese government truly wants, which is to test as few as possible and report as few cases as possible. This whole thing is a PR stint for foreign press.

Also Golden Week is coming up, which means testing will go wayyy down. Japanese government will likely take those reported numbers and declare that through their glorious efforts, Japan have completely defeated covid and reopen the country completely on May 7th.

With such meager testing, I fear that the government is going to be asking us to stay at home for a long time.

On the contrary, I think results will be measured and kept by reducing even furher fhe number of test and then claim the 70 to 80 percent reduction of person to person contact had effectively brought down the number of infected.

The staunch refusal to ramp up testing indicates the government from the onset had adopted the herd immunity approach but hasn't officially announced it for fear of the backlash. We the minions are sacrificial lambs.

Only three months after their neighbor, SK, who has been dealing much better with the pandemic, but better to copy them and be late than never do it at all.

have no car, so instead of low quality mask, please send small covid19 test kit ^^

Personally, even though I am not a doctor, would it not be better to test for antibodies rather than an actually infected person?

South Korea had mass testing early on - that's how they're getting through this in good shape

Japan had more weeks to prepare than other countries - what's their excuse for not having mass testing ready given with more time to prepare

Personally, even though I am not a doctor, would it not be better to test for antibodies rather than an actually infected person?

To know more about the antibody issue, this one is a good start:

https://www.webmd.com/lung/antibody-testing-covid-19#1

It takes your body about 4 weeks to develop IgM antibodies. But scientists aren’t sure how long it’ll take for this to happen with SARS-CoV-2. More tests are needed to find out.

Right now, the FDA has given emergency authorization to only one antibody test.

Are They Accurate?

If you test positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, that usually means you’ve had COVID-19. But you may get a negative result if you’ve only had the virus a short time. And it’s possible to get exposed and not develop antibodies. You may also get a “false positive.” That means you have antibodies but had a different kind of coronavirus.