apparently if you go for a private test and are tested positive, the result is not added to the official figures. So who knows what is really happening?
Yeah it's so true numbers can fluctuate depend upon who's doing the counting.I have been wondering about this, too, but could not find any substantial info (apart from the constant claims at JT). If private tests are indeed excluded from the official figures, they're totally useless.
My wife who watches Japanese TV constantly these days says it's true. Private test results are not "official" so they aren't counted unless the person who got the test follows up and reports it to the hokenjo. (Not sure if they would require an additional test to confirm.) And given how covid-positive people are often bullied, at least according to the news, why would anybody go out of their way to follow up? At that point you stay at home and hope to get better while keeping a watchful eye in case you need to call an ambulance. In other words, these official numbers are probably just the tip of the iceberg.I have been wondering about this, too, but could not find any substantial info (apart from the constant claims at JT). If private tests are indeed excluded from the official figures, they're totally useless.
My wife who watches Japanese TV constantly these days says it's true. Private test results are not "official" so they aren't counted unless the person who got the test follows up and reports it to the hokenjo. (Not sure if they would require an additional test to confirm.) And given how covid-positive people are often bullied, at least according to the news, why would anybody go out of their way to follow up? At that point you stay at home and hope to get better while keeping a watchful eye in case you need to call an ambulance. In other words, these official numbers are probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Since it's not an official result, there's no official detection of an "infectious disease" thus there's no requirement to report it.I was under the impression that infectious diseases need to be reported to health centres. That's, for instance, the case in my country. So even if you took a test in a private clinic, they'd be legally obliged to report to the authorities (in which case such tests would be verified and factored into the official results).
that's my understanding alsoSince it's not an official result, there's no official detection of an "infectious disease" thus there's no requirement to report it.
At least that's the way I understood it.
Since it's not an official result, there's no official detection of an "infectious disease" thus there's no requirement to report it. At least that's the way I understood it.
Specified infectious diseases
* A notification should be submitted immediately after diagnosis.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga backed down on a controversial proposal to imprison COVID-19 patients who refuse to be hospitalized after facing criticism from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party that such a step would be excessive. [...] The bill on the infectious disease law calls for introducing fines of up to ¥500,000 for COVID-19 patients resisting hospitalization and ¥300,000 for those who fail to participate in epidemiological surveys by health authorities. The government had originally sought to introduce a prison sentence of up to one year or a maximum fine of ¥1 million for people who refuse to be hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus, and a fine of up to ¥500,000 for those who do not cooperate with epidemiological surveys. The other bill on the coronavirus special measures law also calls for fines of up to ¥300,000 for restaurants and bars that do not cooperate with orders to shorten their operating hours under a state of emergency and up to ¥200,000 for those not cooperating in a precursor situation categorized as just below a state of emergency.
More than 10 million people in Japan live on less than $19,000 a year, while one in six lives in "relative poverty" on incomes less than half the national median. Economists say that half a million Japanese lost their jobs in the past six months, and campaigners say the ripple effects are spreading across the population. "I know for certain the middle class is collapsing," said Kenji Seino, who heads the nonprofit relief group Tenohasi.
| 27/01 (Wed) | 28/01 (Thu) | 29/01 (Fri) | 30/01 (Sat) | 31/01 (Son) | 01/02 (Mon) | 02/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3,970 | 4,133 | 3,534 | 3,345 | 2.673 | 1,792 | 2,320 |
| 27/01 (Wed) | 28/01 (Thu) | 29/01 (Fri) | 30/01 (Sat) | 31/01 (Son) | 01/02 (Mon) | 02/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
94 - 1,043 | 109 - 1,032 | 90 - 1,014 | 94 - 974 | 108 - 973 | 68 - 975 | 119 - ? |
| 27/01 (Wed) | 28/01 (Thu) | 29/01 (Fri) | 30/01 (Sat) | 31/01 (Son) | 01/02 (Mon) | 02/02 (Tue) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tokyo | 973 | 1.064 | 868 | 769 | 633 | 393 | 556 |
Osaka | 357 | 346 | 450 | 338 | 214 | 178 | 211 |
Hokkaido | 147 | 115 | 111 | 106 | 104 | 76 | 105 |
Aichi | 227 | 244 | 164 | 126 | 121 | 101 | 215 |
Kanagawa | 386 | 433 | 385 | 397 | 390 | 221 | 187 |
Chiba | 258 | 314 | 339 | 317 | 212 | 192 | 222 |
Saitama | 247 | 292 | 256 | 306 | 243 | 159 | 247 |
Hyogo | 211 | 231 | 161 | 137 | 111 | 60 | 135 |
Okinawa | 131 | 98 | 63 | 80 | 39 | 35 | 46 |
As of Jan. 15, the effective reproduction number was 0.80 nationwide. The figure was 0.79 in Tokyo and 10 prefectures under the state of emergency, and 0.84 in all other prefectures. However, the number of patients with severe symptoms was a record-high 1,043 as of Jan. 26. Health officials are concerned about the rising percentages of elderly COVID-19 patients. According to data compiled by the health ministry, during the week from Jan. 3, people 60 years old and older accounted for about 20 percent of new COVID-19 patients, while more than 50 percent were 39 or younger. But during the week between Jan. 17 and Jan. 23, people 60 or older accounted for around 30 percent of the total. "Infections have not decreased among people who are in their 80s and 90s," the advisory panel said, warning that the number of patients with severe symptoms as well as the number of deaths will likely increase.
| 03/02 (Wed) | 04/02 (Thu) | 05/02 (Fri) | 06/02 (Sat) | 07/02 (Son) | 08/02 (Mon) | 09/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2,631 | 2,576 | 2,372 | 2,279 | 1.631 | 1,217 | 1,569 |
| 03/02 (Wed) | 04/02 (Thu) | 05/02 (Fri) | 06/02 (Sat) | 07/02 (Son) | 08/02 (Mon) | 09/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
118 - 897 | 108 - 892 | 115 - 877 | 108 - 815 | 95 - 795 | 57 - 773 | 94 - ? |
| 03/02 (Wed) | 04/02 (Thu) | 05/02 (Fri) | 06/02 (Sat) | 07/02 (Son) | 08/02 (Mon) | 09/02 (Tue) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tokyo | 676 | 734 | 577 | 639 | 429 | 276 | 412 |
Osaka | 244 | 207 | 209 | 188 | 117 | 119 | 155 |
Hokkaido | 94 | 120 | 93 | 78 | 69 | 50 | 41 |
Aichi | 114 | 101 | 86 | 120 | 72 | 43 | 84 |
Kanagawa | 234 | 224 | 288 | 201 | 164 | 121 | 142 |
Chiba | 218 | 202 | 239 | 227 | 121 | 155 | 98 |
Saitama | 257 | 241 | 227 | 206 | 243 | 121 | 173 |
Hyogo | 120 | 111 | 96 | 91 | 54 | 33 | 68 |
Okinawa | 60 | 58 | 41 | 32 | 27 | 40 | ? |
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry had intended to approve the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Monday. With the acceleration of its administrative procedures, the government is considering starting vaccinations on Wednesday for around 20,000 doctors and nurses who have consented to receive the shots, the sources said. The first batch of some 400,000 doses arrived at Narita airport to the east of Tokyo at around 10:20 a.m. on an All Nippon Airways Co. flight from Brussels.
It had been widely reported that the first doses would arrive from Belgium, where they were manufactured, on Sunday. Ahead of the formal approval, a health ministry panel is expected to hold a meeting on Friday night to discuss whether the vaccine, jointly developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE, should be given the OK. It is highly likely that the panel will give the shot the green light, given that Pfizer's vaccine has already been administered in a number of other countries including the United States.
A coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac has been found to be 50.4% effective in Brazilian clinical trials, according to the latest results released by researchers. It shows the vaccine is significantly less effective than previous data suggested - barely over the 50% needed for regulatory approval.
That was pretty much joking about it.
Japan plans to issue coronavirus vaccination vouchers to its nearly 2.22 million registered foreign residents at the same time as Japanese citizens, but preparations to provide foreign-language information on how to get the jab remain up in the air.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday the vaccine rollout will begin with front-line health care workers from the middle of this week. Up to 20,000 front-line medical staffers at state-run hospitals are set to be the first to receive the vaccines, followed by 3.7 million other health care workers. Vaccination tickets are set to be sent to about 36 million people age 65 and older by the end of March, with the inoculations slated to kick off from April, according to a government schedule. Expats and other foreign residents in Japan who are registered with a municipality of residence as well as diplomats will be eligible for vaccinations, Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the rollout, has said.
| 10/02 (Wed) | 11/02 (Thu) | 12/02 (Fri) | 13/02 (Sat) | 14/02 (Son) | 15/02 (Mon) | 16/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1,886 | 1,693 | 1,301 | 1,362 | 1.364 | 965 | 1,305 |
| 10/02 (Wed) | 11/02 (Thu) | 12/02 (Fri) | 13/02 (Sat) | 14/02 (Son) | 15/02 (Mon) | 16/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
81 - 736 | 121 - 713 | 96 - 701 | 75 - 693 | 63 - 668 | 40 - 658 | 101 - 644 |
| 10/02 (Wed) | 11/02 (Thu) | 12/02 (Fri) | 13/02 (Sat) | 14/02 (Son) | 15/02 (Mon) | 16/02 (Tue) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tokyo | 491 | 434 | 307 | 369 | 371 | 266 | 350 |
Osaka | 127 | 141 | 89 | 142 | 98 | 69 | 98 |
Hokkaido | 64 | 92 | 75 | 39 | 52 | 41 | 44 |
Aichi | 114 | 80 | 53 | 59 | 77 | 42 | 63 |
Kanagawa | 176 | 178 | 154 | 105 | 108 | 71 | 133 |
Chiba | 145 | 127 | 117 | 98 | 108 | 136 | 145 |
Saitama | 169 | 172 | 124 | 164 | 131 | 94 | 114 |
Hyogo | 94 | 53 | 38 | 56 | 44 | 27 | 46 |
Okinawa | 27 | 16 | 16 | 11 | 19 | 5 | ? |
The infection figures were left out as staff at public health centers forgot to file reports due to busy schedules following a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases, among other causes. [...] According to the metropolitan government, one to 73 infections were omitted per day from tally reports. Following the correction of infection figures, the number of new coronavirus cases recorded in Tokyo on Jan. 7 will have been 2,520, up from the original single-day high of 2,447 cases reported on the same day.
Concerning the country's vaccination program, 71 percent gave either "very high" or "somewhat high" marks for the government's approach, compared with 26 percent who gave "very low" or "somewhat low" marks. The public's view of the coronavirus vaccine remained mixed, the survey found. Asked if they would take the vaccine if it were available for free now, 29 percent said they would "immediately," up from 21 percent in the previous survey. Sixty-two percent said they will "wait and see for some time" before receiving the injections, down 8 points. Eight percent said they do not want the inoculation, the same as in the previous survey.
One vial is meant for six shots, Pfizer says, but it takes special syringes that retain a low volume of solution after an injection to extract six doses, while only five shots can be taken with standard syringes that the government has stored up in preparation for the inoculation drive.
| 17/02 (Wed) | 18/02 (Thu) | 19/02 (Fri) | 20/02 (Sat) | 21/02 (Son) | 22/02 (Mon) | 23/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1,447 | 1,537 | 1,303 | 1,234 | 1.032 | 740 | 1,083 |
| 17/02 (Wed) | 18/02 (Thu) | 19/02 (Fri) | 20/02 (Sat) | 21/02 (Son) | 22/02 (Mon) | 23/02 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
87 - 607 | 94 - 564 | 96 - 547 | 59 - 526 | 84 - 511 | 57 - 510 | 55 - 491 |
| 17/02 (Wed) | 18/02 (Thu) | 19/02 (Fri) | 20/02 (Sat) | 21/02 (Son) | 22/02 (Mon) | 23/02 (Tue) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tokyo | 378 | 445 | 353 | 327 | 272 | 178 | 275 |
Osaka | 133 | 89 | 91 | 94 | 60 | 62 | 100 |
Hokkaido | 64 | 32 | 43 | 34 | 63 | 21 | 66 |
Aichi | 81 | 51 | 51 | 46 | 33 | 30 | 63 |
Kanagawa | 115 | 142 | 129 | 131 | 100 | 96 | 51 |
Chiba | 130 | 149 | 147 | 123 | 163 | 99 | 90 |
Saitama | 130 | 210 | 141 | 121 | 84 | 101 | 105 |
Hyogo | 74 | 46 | 31 | 42 | 27 | 14 | 24 |
Okinawa | 21 | 18 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 10 | 17 |
.For people age 65 or above — a group of about 36 million — vaccinations will start in April under the schedule set by the health ministry. But Kono said Sunday the vaccine would be only available in limited areas and among limited age groups during that month due to supply shortages. Staff under 65 at nursing homes for the elderly have also been added to the priority list "in order to prevent cluster infections from occurring within the facilities," Kono said. After inoculations begin of people age 65 or older, people with pre-existing conditions and those working at elderly care facilities will be targeted, and then finally the general population, according to the health ministry.
| 24/02 (Wed) | 25/02 (Thu) | 26/02 (Fri) | 27/02 (Sat) | 28/02 (Son) | 01/03 (Mon) | 02/03 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
921 | 1,076 | 1,056 | 1,214 | 999 | 698 | 888 |
| 24/02 (Wed) | 25/02 (Thu) | 26/02 (Fri) | 27/02 (Sat) | 28/02 (Son) | 01/03 (Mon) | 02/03 (Tue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
55 - 487 | 63 - 472 | 75 - 457 | 85 - 434 | 53 - 511 | 27 - 436 | 60 - 413 |
| 24/02 (Wed) | 25/02 (Thu) | 26/02 (Fri) | 27/02 (Sat) | 28/02 (Son) | 01/03 (Mon) | 02/03 (Tue) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tokyo | 213 | 340 | 270 | 337 | 329 | 121 | 232 |
Osaka | 62 | 82 | 77 | 69 | 54 | 56 | 81 |
Hokkaido | 43 | 43 | 36 | 43 | 27 | 29 | 29 |
Aichi | 46 | 41 | 40 | 53 | 31 | 32 | 34 |
Kanagawa | 93 | 119 | 117 | 162 | 131 | 52 | 84 |
Chiba | 127 | 107 | 113 | 151 | 132 | 127 | 87 |
Saitama | 59 | 111 | 101 | 118 | 97 | 61 | 102 |
Hyogo | 18 | 36 | 24 | 21 | 26 | 21 | 44 |
Okinawa | 12 | 15 | 23 | 19 | 15 | 7 | ? |
U.S. biotechnology firm Moderna Inc. is planning to file for the Japanese health ministry's approval of its novel coronavirus vaccine as early as Friday, several people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The request would be the third such application for regulatory approval in Japan and will be filed with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Moderna's partner for its vaccine's clinical study and distribution in Japan. Takeda recently said it has finished the enrollment of study candidates in Japan for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in early February, aiming to gain government approval and start distribution in the first half of this year.
Coronavirus vaccinations started in Japan on Feb. 17. From its development to the inoculation method, the vaccine has numerous differences to shots commonly used in Japan for influenza and other conditions, which may have caused unease among some people. To find out a little more about the reality of receiving the vaccine, I interviewed Doctor Kosuke Yasukawa, 38, who works at a hospital in Washington, D.C., and was immunized with the vaccine from Pfizer Inc., a major U.S. pharmaceutical company, in December 2020 and January 2021.
Daily infections have seen a downward trend nationwide since early January. However, low testing, miscounts to the tune of hundreds of cases, the absence in publicly released figures of tests conducted by private companies and efforts to scale back contact tracing hint at the possibility that an unknown number of cases have gone unreported due to strained resources, bureaucratic missteps and temporary policy changes.
On Monday, Japan confirmed 698 new cases, the second consecutive day below 1,000, while reporting 51 new virus-linked fatalities. The number of patients with severe symptoms, meanwhile, rose by two from Sunday to 436. While Tokyo saw just 121 cases after hitting a record 2,500-plus infections in early January, neighboring Chiba Prefecture on Monday reported 127 new infections. "We need to prepare for a state of emergency being extended," Chiba Gov. Kensaku Morita said.
Tokyo has requested Beijing to stop taking anal swab tests for Covid-19 on Japanese citizens because the procedure causes psychological pain, a government spokesperson has said. Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Katsunobu Kato, said the government had not received a response that Beijing would change the testing procedure, so Japan would continue to ask China to alter the way of testing. "Some Japanese reported to our embassy in China that they received anal swab tests, which caused a great psychological pain," Kato told a news conference.
Japanese supercomputer simulations showed that wearing two masks gave limited benefit in blocking viral spread compared with one properly fitted mask. The findings in part contradict recent recommendations from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that two masks were better than one at reducing a person's exposure to the coronavirus. Researchers used the Fugaku supercomputer to model the flow of virus particles from people wearing different types and combinations of masks, according to a study released on Thursday by research giant Riken and Kobe University. Using a single surgical-type mask, made of non-woven material, had 85% effectiveness in blocking particles when worn tightly around the nose and face. Adding a polyurethane mask on top boosted the effectiveness to just 89%. Wearing two non-woven masks isn't useful because air resistance builds up and causes leakage around the edges. "The performance of double masking simply does not add up," wrote the researchers, led by Makoto Tsubokura.