Kishida says he is not considering COVID state of emergency for Tokyo

His only measure is to keep the border closed to foreigners.

He can just have the SOE declared, but remove all the restrictions on restaurants, etc.

Without SOE declaration, the majority of companies will not even allow 1 day of remote work out of the week. With the number of trains on Yamanote line reduced, it is more crowded than ever!

Common sense prevails - this is not what is needed right now. Let’s get any extra money ring-fenced for a pointless SOE out to families and people who actually need it.

The government doesnt even follow its own guidelines so what use are they in the first place?

Guidelines and the people who made them that is!

We are pushing 70% down here and the guidelines have been tossed out the window once they passed 50%

Everyone will likely catch Omicron eventually, as long as the hospital system is able to handle it I don't see any more reason to strengthen the measures.

Hopefully they give the healthcare workers some incentives for their heavy workloads.

the ratio of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients in the capital hit 48.5 percent Sunday. The ratio is nearing the 50-percent threshold for the metropolitan government to consider requesting a state of emergency in an attempt to strengthen anti-coronavirus measures.

and from another of this evening's stories here

The number of infected people hospitalized with severe symptoms in Tokyo is 26, up three from Sunday, health officials said. The nationwide figure is 783, up 16 from Sunday.

scratching my head.....

Right decision. SOE is not going to bear any fruit. we experienced from past decisions.

there is no reason for that as omicron is at its peak abt now so soon we will go down from hill...Finland,UK,NL etc have abolished so called "covid restrictions" and more countries to follow in days to come...

Japan get wave of omicron later but sure will follow in path of others.

one more month and covid as we have heard from media at everyday base for 2+years will be thing of past...will not go away but may be equal to average flu...

Might as well Covid is not going anywhere!

Good.

SOE or no SOE, there’s no difference.

Not much difference between the quasi state of emergency and the proper state of emergency in Japan. The only thing that happens during this time is that restaurants are being told to close at 8pm and limit alcohol sale while workers suffer without enough wages because of this idiotic request!

Makes sense and since the cat is out of the bag so to speak no sense imposing the S o E. I would rather have the govt lift the entry for foreign visitors and students as long as they are vaccinated, boosted, and masked up and if necessary go through a 3 day quarantine.

I caught Omicron in Japan but the Japanese government does not want to admit the truth that it is not containable and that it is a treat not from gaikoku anymore but within the country

Good !

This ISSUE involves humans lives, total shut down immediately.

Well nice to see some semblance of common sense from the Japanese government.

good call Kishida!

He might.

Hope he is right......I must say I agree with him.

He seems relatively competent especially compared to his neanderthal predecessors Suga and Abe.

Everyone will likely catch Omicron eventually, as long as the hospital system is able to handle it I don't see any more reason to strengthen the measures.

> Hopefully they give the healthcare workers some incentives for their heavy workloads

They won't be able to handle it, not with the amount of anti vaccers still walking around

All we give the healthcare workers is COVID, meaning that the non COVID parients will have delayed treatment or no treatment.

Daily omicron COVID deaths now higher than peak of delta wave

https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-covid-omicron-deaths-higher-delta-20220128-he7zxhrug5d5vascktb3uhnc2i-story.html

Kitty, please do not confuse the antivaxxer crowd with facts. They know Omicron is less virulent than Delta but they forget way more people are getting infected. Simple math is all that is needed to figure this out but that is beyond the flat earth society types. In Japan the deaths per day are climbing now as well.

Expectable, business leaders have quite more influence than health experts. Anyway, that’s only the short term effect, where they can keep making money, but long and post Covid will put the bills on the table later, for the moneymakers and also for you, the now happily shouters from the workforce. lol

＠Expotential Witness

Omicron is not as deadly as once perceived.

More people have died from Omicron than Delta