Jijitsu comments

They make the virus..then they make the vaccine by 'leading' the race.

Good job China.... And good money too...

Get well soon Grigor.

Hope no one else is affected :(

Read again... He did feature on the show...

Tens of thousands of viewers watched more than 70 of the country's biggest celebrities --

including cricket captain Virat Kohli and actor Khan --

as well as international names such as actor Will Smith and rock legend Mick Jagger in the "I for India" show broadcast on Facebook.

Jagger and Smith spoke about the struggles of rural migrant workers, many of whom have lost their jobs and gone hungry during an ongoing nationwide lockdown imposed from late March.

noriahojanen

Send all invoices to Beijing.

spot on.... yes..China has to pay..They created the mess

None of the corporates have a social responsibility in place..

In pandemic situations, social responsibility is to reduce the total number of people coming to office, so that those who essentially have to travel for work, face lesser threat of infection.

The reality of this nation and it's work culture is that even IT employees are asked to report for work, despite facilities for telework being available.

Essential services have to continue, but with office workers and shoppers off the road, they are better off.

The reality is that you can't keep shut downs for a long time... So first you go in for a total shut down, and then open up much later, with soft lockdowns still in place.... Japan is doing it the reverse way.

The government has to lockdown parks. May be make police stand there with a megaphone and instruct people and children to leave.

There are way too many kids playing in the park... Many without masks and gloves.

People still queue up in Supermarket lines without maintaining sufficient distance.

Japan has downplayed this for so long, that people refuse to take it seriously. They have to now tune up their safety instructions a couple of notch...

Michel Reiziger

Not sure why people have been downvoting this person. He speaks complete sense.

Just wait until Koike announces measures today. Monday onwards, we will see greater restrictions... I am guessing

Serrano,

Earth to Islamic extremist groups - COVID-19 doesn't discriminate between Muslims and non-Muslims.

They don't care. In the above case, if a person dies, he would be hailed a martyr..a jihadist.

Where's the logic when people believe that whoever dies is an infidel and whoever is spared is a follower of God? The masses don't think logically.

In India, a Muslim religious group carried out it's meetings, defying their government's orders. It seems they were told that followers of Allah would be spared.

Attendees included people from nations including Bangladesh and Malaysia.

They caught Coronavirus here.

These guys then spread across the country, taking it to the remote villages.. places where a pandemic normally would not get to. Most of the cases in the country are now linked to this meeting.

Thanks Rizdown.

Exactly my first thoughts after I read through this article.

RIP little one.

And may your family find peace of mind.

Trevor Noah anytime

Very informative article. Thank you

How many people are there in the expert panel and how many of them are medical doctors, who frontlined pandemic situations?

Thank you Dr. Iwata.

Rest in peace

I suppose the origin is in China... And like many, the story that it probably came out of a military lab, by accident, is very plausible.

Why else would China keep it under wraps for almost a month and a half?

Pinning the blame on the US started quite later.

If it were from the US, as China says 'now', they would have started protesting long back.

"They are in extreme precaution, there are water-based gels everywhere. Everybody wears a mask, they work almost normally."

Dear Denis Masseglia,

Whom did you observe when you said that there are held everywhere and that everyone wears masks? What you see in high end meeting rooms us not a sample at all.

We, the ordinary people can't find sanitizers on market shelves. We don't get to buy masks. Ordinary stores don't have them... And they cost a lot on Amazon.

Don't fool the world by spreading wrong word.

The coronavirus pandemic must have reached its peak and be on the wane by the end of May

OMG..Are these folks for real!!!???

Akie

Look at all the other nations that took drastic measures. It's understandable that we are talking about the Olympics here, but Japan should have been more proactive here.

They played with IOC all along.

They probably lost a valuable 1 month or more in effective response to the disease. They should have concentrated more on disease control.

Botching up numbers doesn't help. Epidemics don't go away because someone says they don't exist.

So now, the narrative is being built up towards a cancellation.or postponement.

Postponing to the same time,next year had always been an obvious and intelligent choice. But now, it's being pursued as 'other nations' may not participate.

What pains me is that those in public office neglect their own people for economic gains.

If a postponement or cancellation happens, it is because they are forced to do it...but not because they are willing to do it.

I bet that once the announcement comes, the numbers and tests would also increase.

History had selfish Kings and dictators... individuals who put their priorities above the masses. Today they have grouped to form governments.... The irony of the current times is that we elect them ourselves.

Wondering why most of the photos carry the comment "For most people, the new coronavirus causes only ......."

Agree with kiwi07

It's the city and the Senbei shop-owners' responsibility.

Time to give back a little to the deer, a portion of what businesses got from them all these years - by giving them free Senbei treats or other food, instead of waiting for tourists

Make a huge artificial lake to release the water.

Get tourist money by showcasing it.

Thanks for a positive news JT.

Alejandra,

Thank you for posting the article.

Tokyo-Engr,

Thanks for writing valid points in a way that couldn't have been written better.

All said and done, in my very very personal opinion, I guess the truth about the numbers in Japan, and the truth about how the virus 'really originated' in China, will never come out. These would have lots of political and economic repercussions.

I am deeply disappointed in how the pandemic is being handled in Japan... As though you can postpone stuff and deal with it later.

A good measure. But this should be done across the country simultaneously for it to be effective. I hope many others follow

Thank you so much Dr.Iwate.

AkieToday  07:25 am JST

Disillusioned, this quarantine is about to protect large populations, 120 millions to be exact. Japanese did great sacrifice in this adventure, that needs to be recognized.

Actually, looking at the points mentioned by Dr.Iwate, the 120 millions haven't been protected.

High chances are that the virus has been let loose into the mainland, through people who have not followed adequate safety measures.

Everything doesn't need to be expressed as nationalism, emotions, and sacrifice. You need to consider facts and be objective sometimes.

Look at this article:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-51542241

I'll quote the specific paragraph from the above:

Spending two weeks aboard the vessel did not count as a proper quarantine because passengers could have come into contact with an infected person at any point during that period, he added.

In my experience, infection with a bacterium or virus don't show up in a test until a few days have passed. That's why sometimes, you test negative initially, but test positive a few days later.

Which means if a person in the ship contracted the virus a day before leaving the ship, he/she would test negative, but still be a carrier.

Await expert comments on this

.. And meanwhile, Japanese TV shows try to show how people are getting back to normal life after 2 weeks on the Diamond Princess. Everything is hunky dory..

Desperate situations call for desperate measures.

Dear Government,

Please enforce a policy of online price regulation, where online businesses will control the max price for essential goods: all masks, sanitizers, and alcohol tissues will come out in the open then.

Please enforce a policy where companies allow employees to work from home. The virus will not suddenly change the culture. But, enforcement will.

Please shut down schools for a while. South Korea has already done it, according to some articles I read.

Encourage people to look at traditional medicine to boost immunity.

Please do not sacrifice long term economic stability looking at short term impacts. It's very difficult to take such decisions, but please do.

TOKYO

Japan's health minister on Sunday urged the public to avoid crowds and "non-essential gatherings", including notoriously packed commuter trains, 

"Urged" will not work here in Japan, in this situation.

"Order" "Enforce" are the words.

If the government doesn't want a future and a bigger impact, it has to "order" companies to encourage teleworking, and shift the timings suitably so that rush hour can be avoided.

I said this in the past too.. declare a temporary holiday, for everyone except medical services..and we will avoid a debacle.