COVID-19 Coronavirus: situation in Japan

A monoclonal "antibody cocktail" drug developed by U.S. firm Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. obtained fast-track approval from the Japanese health ministry on Friday for use as a post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent the spread of the coronavrius within households and for the treatment of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. Ronapreve, which is composed of the artificially produced antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab, was also given approval to be administered by subcutaneous injection, in addition to the intravenous injection that was already authorized, to provide flexibility in how the drug is given to match each patient's needs. The approvals came a day after the ministry's expert panel backed the treatment and mark the country's first OK for a COVID-related drug to be used for prophylactic purposes, aside from the COVID-19 vaccines. A global final stage clinical study assessing the efficacy and safety of Ronapreve in preventing symptomatic infection in household contacts showed that the drug reduced the risk by 81.4% in those who were not infected when they entered the trial.

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Ronapreve combines two neutralizing antibodies that prevent the novel coronavirus from entering cells. Recipients who have not developed symptoms must have a high risk of becoming seriously ill due to obesity or other underlying conditions. They also must have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have been unable to build up enough immunity against the virus through inoculation. Ronapreve reduced the risk of developing COVID-19 symptoms by 81 percent among those who have come into close contact with patients in a clinical trial conducted in the United States and other countries, according to Chugai Pharmaceutical.

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thomas said:

Yesterday, Japan approved a COVID-19 antibody cocktail, the first treatment in Japan authorized for people who have not developed COVID-19 symptoms.

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News on Japan, Business News, Opinion, Sports, Entertainment and More

www.japantimes.co.jp

Antibody cocktail 1st in Japan to be used before onset of COVID-19 | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

www.asahi.com

This sounds painful, though:

"When administered subcutaneously, Ronapreve needs to be injected into four sites under the skin on the recipient's stomach, thighs and upper arms. The ministry will recommend the drug be given intravenously to treat patients with symptoms."

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(Reuters) -Pfizer Inc's experimental antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 cut by 89% the chance of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of severe disease, the company said on Friday, as its CEO vowed to make this promising new weapon in the fight against the pandemic available globally as quickly as possible.

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The country reported a total of 162 new cases of the deadly virus the same day, while the nationwide number of severely ill COVID-19 patients stood at 100, unchanged from Saturday. In the capital, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 21 new infections Sunday, down by one from a week earlier as the daily tally remained below 30 for the 11th consecutive day. The seven-day average of new cases, meanwhile, stood at 20.1 in Tokyo, down from 24.6 a week before. The number of COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms under the metropolitan government's standards was unchanged from Saturday at 12. Osaka Prefecture, one of the hardest-hit areas, reported 39 new cases of the virus.

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The Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science's study up until March this year found that close to half a million residents in the capital may have COVID-19, but never turned up in official counts because they showed no symptoms. The study looked at 23,234 individuals who underwent outpatient care at 14 hospitals in the capital between September 2020 and March 2021. After gaining the consent of the individuals, a check was made for the presence of the COVID-19 antibody which would indicate whether the individual had been infected. The study found that 3.4 percent of the test subjects had the antibody. Because those who had run fevers or been vaccinated were excluded from the study, the figure represents the ratio of those who were likely infected with the virus but had no tell-tale symptoms. Taking Tokyo's population of about 14 million into account, the ratio suggests that around 470,000 residents might have been infected without showing any symptoms.

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thomas said:

The findings are not surprising; however, Asahi called the research paper published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science a 'bombshell study': based on COVID-19 antibody estimates, the institute concluded that the number of Covid-19 infections in Tokyo might be close to four times as high as the official figure given out by the metropolitan government.

COVID-19 cases in Tokyo likely 4 times the official count | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

www.asahi.com

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musicisgood said:

We probably don't know since many maybe asymptomatic also.

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The vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE will initially be the only one used for the third doses, meaning individuals who have received either of the other two types used in Japan - Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc. - will need to "mix and match." The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare panel also said individuals will in principle need to wait eight months between their second and third shots, though local governments can shorten the interval to six months if they deem it necessary, for example to curb an ongoing surge in infections.

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Lothor said:

Yes, things are going very well at the moment. I'm able to go out and enjoy myself again, and despite the low number of cases, most people are being sensible, wearing masks, and disinfecting themselves when they enter shops.

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Media hype over scares involving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in the 1990s and, more recently, with the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, helped turn Japan into one of the least vaccine-confident countries in the world, according to a 2020 Lancet study. Less than 30% of people were confident that vaccines were safe, compared with at least 50% of Americans, the study said. A February poll by the Kyodo news agency found that 27.4% of respondents said they did not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19. But data provided by the prime minister's office shows high Covid-19 vaccination rates across all age groups. More than 92% of people in their 70s have been double jabbed, along with almost 70% of those in their 30s.

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thomas said:

The weekly updates (10-16 Nov 2021):

Nationwide infections:

[TABLE=full]
[TR]
[TH]10/11 (Wed)[/TH]
[TH]11/11 (Thu)[/TH]
[TH]12/11 (Fri)[/TH]
[TH]13/11 (Sat)[/TH]
[TH]14/11 (Son)[/TH]
[TH]15/11 (Mon)[/TH]
[TH]16/11 (Tue)[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

205 (- 60)​

[/TD]

[TD]

216 (+ 58)​

[/TD]

[TD]

201 (- 24)​

[/TD]

[TD]

202 (- 39)​

[/TD]

[TD]

134 (- 28)​

[/TD]

[TD]

79 (- 28)​

[/TD]

[TD]

154 (- 50)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Nationwide deaths - Seriously Ill:

[TABLE=full]
[TR]
[TH]10/11 (Wed)[/TH]
[TH]11/11 (Thu)[/TH]
[TH]12/11 (Fri)[/TH]
[TH]13/11 (Sat)[/TH]
[TH]14/11 (Son)[/TH]
[TH]15/11 (Mon)[/TH]
[TH]16/11 (Tue)[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

3 (- 4) - 96 (- 19)​

[/TD]

[TD]

2 (- 6) - 92 (- 17)​

[/TD]

[TD]

5 (- 1) - 87 (- 16)​

[/TD]

[TD]

0 (- 10) - 83 (- 17)​

[/TD]

[TD]

2 (- 1) - 85 (- 15)​

[/TD]

[TD]

2 (+ 1) - 85 (- 16)​

[/TD]

[TD]

0 (- 3) - 82 (- 17)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Infections in selected prefectures:

[TABLE=full]
[TR]
[TH][/TH]

[TH]10/11 (Wed)[/TH]
[TH]11/11 (Thu)[/TH]
[TH]12/11 (Fri)[/TH]
[TH]13/11 (Sat)[/TH]
[TH]14/11 (Son)[/TH]
[TH]15/11 (Mon)[/TH]
[TH]16/11 (Tue)[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Aichi​

[/TD]

[TD]

8 (- 14)​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (+ 8)​

[/TD]

[TD]

18 (+ 3)​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (- 3)​

[/TD]

[TD]

11 (- 5)​

[/TD]

[TD]

2 (- 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

8 (+ 3)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Chiba​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (- 4)​

[/TD]

[TD]

7 (+ 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (+ 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

11 (+ 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

5 (+ 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

3 (- 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

7 (- 2)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Fukuoka​

[/TD]

[TD]

7 (+ 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

2 (- 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

10 (+ 4)​

[/TD]

[TD]

5 (- 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (+ 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

5 (+ 3)​

[/TD]

[TD]

5 (+ 1)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Hokkaido​

[/TD]

[TD]

8 (- 5)​

[/TD]

[TD]

8 (+ 4)​

[/TD]

[TD]

22 (+ 9)​

[/TD]

[TD]

19 (+ 6)​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (- 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

3 (- 3)​

[/TD]

[TD]

35 (+ 22)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Hyogo​

[/TD]

[TD]

15 (- 10)​

[/TD]

[TD]

4 (- 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

10 (- 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

16 (- 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

7 (+ 5)​

[/TD]

[TD]

3 (- 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

12 (- 4)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Kanagawa​

[/TD]

[TD]

14 (+ 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

14 (- 8)​

[/TD]

[TD]

19 (+ 10)​

[/TD]

[TD]

15 (+ 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

12 (+ 3)​

[/TD]

[TD]

18 (+ 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (- 3)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Okinawa​

[/TD]

[TD]

5 (- 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

3 (- 5)​

[/TD]

[TD]

3 (- 12)​

[/TD]

[TD]

1 (- 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

1 (- 3)​

[/TD]

[TD]

0 (- 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

3 (- 1)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Osaka​

[/TD]

[TD]

26 (- 27)​

[/TD]

[TD]

64 (+ 44)​

[/TD]

[TD]

26 (- 6)​

[/TD]

[TD]

30 (- 9)​

[/TD]

[TD]

18 (- 21)​

[/TD]

[TD]

8 (- 7)​

[/TD]

[TD]

13 (- 15)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Saitama​

[/TD]

[TD]

17 (+ 10)​

[/TD]

[TD]

8 (+ 2)​

[/TD]

[TD]

9 (- 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

10 (+ 4)​

[/TD]

[TD]

8 (+ 6)​

[/TD]

[TD]

11 (+ 8)​

[/TD]

[TD]

13 (- 1)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

Tokyo​

[/TD]

[TD]

25 (+-0)​

[/TD]

[TD]

31 (+ 17)​

[/TD]

[TD]

22 (-3)​

[/TD]

[TD]

24 (- 5)​

[/TD]

[TD]

22 (+ 1)​

[/TD]

[TD]

7 (- 11)​

[/TD]

[TD]

15 (- 15)​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Vaccinations as of 15 November 2021:

195m (+ 2m); fully vaccinated: 95.5m (+ 1.7m) = 75.9% of population

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[...] the chief reason may be related to the genetic changes that the coronavirus undergoes during reproduction, at a pace of around two mutations per month. According to a potentially revolutionary theory proposed by Ituro Inoue, a professor at the National Institute of Genetics, the delta variant in Japan accumulated too many mutations to the virus's error-correcting, non-structural protein called nsp14. As a result, the virus struggled to repair the errors in time, ultimately leading to "self-destruction."

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Pfizer Inc. applied to the health ministry for use of its vaccines for children on Nov. 10, but permission has not been granted yet. The volume of active substances in Pfizer's vaccine for children is only a third of those for people aged 12 or older. The ministry asked those governments to ensure that vaccines for children and adults are handled separately. It maintained its policy of "not recommending" group vaccinations be given at schools because of peer pressure that could arise among students.

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thomas said:

Meanwhile, some scholars speculate whether the disappearance of the delta variant could be a sign of self-extinction:

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New research from the US has shown that white-tailed deer are being infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans. Antibodies were found in 40% of deer that were tested from January to March 2021 across Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York state. A second unpublished study has detected the virus in 80% of deer sampled in Iowa between November 2020 and January 2021.

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