20200602 (Tuesday) Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of probably 1): Main news quick sweep

Had time for another quick sweep this morning. (Well, actually I didn’t, but I did it anyway.)

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Today’s Japan Covid-related NHK morning news topics:

• One week since the lifting of the State of Emergency
• Increased movement from Tokyo to tourist spots
• New group infections in Kitakyushu
• This summer’s sightseeing “Local and online”
• Special report 60% of company employees report they’ve put on weight during corona
• Fireworks to “drive away” Coronavirus

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37 new cases today.

13 in Tokyo, 1 in Kanagawa and 5 in Hokkaido, 1 in Gifu

Another 1 in quarantine after coming back from overseas.

16 in Fukuoka.

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So short fireworks displays were set off in various parts of the country at 8pm last night, with the exact locations kept under wraps to avoid crowding.

The project was ostensibly to cheer people up a bit, but NHK labelled it “Corona Taisan” fireworks. In the context, Taisan probably means to drive away corona, or that corona is on the retreat.

But add the right verb and it could mean that WE are fleeing the coronavirus.

ALC website was its usual helpful self and suggested, “Bugger off”

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Yesterday was back to school in many places.

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This school held its entrance ceremony outside.

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With the parents looking on from behind the fence.

[I took this picture because (a) it looks weirdly dystopian, and (b) it reminded me that we used to have a couple of nonces at our school fence on a daily basis back in the 70s and nobody thought to even move them on.]

The Day Today: Attitudes Night (“Kiddystare” at 1:58)

BTW the whole video is NSFW.

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Classes of various kinds restarted in the capital yesterday, like this ballet class.

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And the 10-yen-coin temple is open again in Kyoto.

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As is this monkey park in Oita.

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This theater put on a performance,…

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…but with the theater itself closed to the audience and the performance broadcast online for a fee.

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NHK used big data from NTT Docomo’s base station data (with personal information masked) to have a look at people’s movement out of the capital and into other parts of the country.
They found a 6% increase on weekdays and a 13% increase on weekends compared to last week.

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Much of it was to other Kanto prefectures such as Chiba or even Shizuoka.

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But they also found that a significant proportion of people had gone to Kyoto and Nara.

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Kitakyushu had 16 new cases yesterday, from someone under 10 to someone over 90.

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9 are medical staff at this hospital who had already had contact with infected patients.

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Another staff member was confirmed at this other hospital which brings their total for the last few days to 11.

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So over the last 10 days, that’s 113 new cases, of which 36 were untraceable.

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And so to the most important story of the day, how we are all accumulating Lockdown Lard.

But this particularly I took for the taste in clothes rather than the taste in food.

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With people working from home and not needing to commute, the amount of movement people are doing has fallen drastically. This slide is data of people’s phone’s pedometers.

The number of people walking less than 3000 steps a day has doubled compared to January.

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57% of people have reported an increase in weight since the lockdown.

60% people reported an increase in fat ratio.

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Some people have reported an increase of 10kg.

…that would also be me.