09 June 2021 (Wednesday) – Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of 2): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers
Part 02 is gonna be the senior dating scene
See photo captions for stories
Photo 01a
Kozo, Maho and a few CCs of salty solution waiting to be injected.
Photo 01b
Japan covid-related topics from NHK’s 7am news bulletin today.
- Vaccinations “The 6-hour wall”
- US lowers travel advisory level for Japan
- Senior marriage matchmaking businesses making hay amid covid
While we’re here: Watch out for heatstroke. And a special report on people getting in over their head sending digital tip money to online idols.
Not mentioned in today’s news, but on the wide shows yesterday: The SDF said that as of yesterday morning, 80% of the slots open for June 14-27 at their mass-vac centers were still open.
Photo 02
1884 cases confirmed yesterday
[vs. 2643 for the same day last week, and 3901 for the same day two weeks ago.
FYI on Feb 1 in 1884 1st volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, published]
42 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
No new daily prefectural records appear to have been set.
Tokyo was 369 [the goose drank wine]
[vs. 471 for the same day last week.]
Osaka at 190
[vs. 201 for the same day last week.]
Triple figures for:
Kanagawa 179 [outdoing…]
Aichi 170
Okinawa at 159
Hokkaido at 120
The number of positives at immigration testing was 1.
Photo 03
99 deaths confirmed yesterday, for a total of 13772.
The total of current active serious cases stands at 1099, down 21 on the previous day.
Total recorded cases at 766380.
Recovered cases at 710875 (up around 3500 on the previous day).
[Jabs calculator]
Total active cases are at 41733 (down around 1800 on the previous day).
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total is 5.44%
Photo 04
Here is the breakdown for the Kansai region.
332 new daily cases.
36 deaths confirmed
Photo 05
The government will probably lift Manbo measures as scheduled on June 13 for Ishikawa, Gunma and Kumamoto.
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They are expected to make a decision late next week on the 5 SofE and 10 other Manbo prefectures, whose term is due to expire on June 20.
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The US has lowered its travel advisory for Japan from Level 4 “Do Not Travel” to Level 03 “Reconsider Travel”
Photo 08a
The CDC is advising you only travel to Japan if you have been vaccinated first.
Photo 08b
And people who have not been vaccinated should avoid any non-essential travel to Japan.
Photo 09
Kyoto is now taking reservations for its own mass vac center for old people.
Osaka CITY’s mass vac center (at Intex) says it will accept the 64 and unders where there is space on the schedule. [Please check the homepage etc. for the exact procedures and rules to do this. It seems Intex’s location in bumf*ck nowhere has put people off going.]
Photo 10
[While daily vaccination rates are accelerating – one wide show but the Japan daily rate as 700,00ish which is higher than the UK and is heading up while the US has rapidly dropped from a peak of 3 million a day to just over 1 million at the moment – there have been some reports of mistakes.]
Sakai city had one case where a used syringe was accidentally reused on another patient.
Photo 11
Kobe city found that at one of their mass vac centers, their number of doses and number of people jabbed don’t match and they suspect that 5 people may not have been vaccinated properly.
[This is at least the sixth time Kobe city has had to announce a vaccination error in past month or so.]
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While we’re in Kobe: Konan University, Konan Women’s University and Kobe Pharmaceutical University announced that they will team up and apply for the government’s scheme to have companies and unis organize their own private vaccination programs [applications for which opened yesterday].
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They plan to bring in nurses from Konan Medical Center in the same Nada ward of Kobe to do the jabbing.
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They are also thinking of using pharmacists who work at Kobe Pharmaceutical University.
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The vaccination venue will be Konan University and they hope to start vaccinating their 17000 students and staff as early as the late part of June.
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NHK national did a little bit on one of the obstacles facing vaccinations in the community: “The six-hour wall”
After the Prizer vaccine has been thawed and diluted, it needs to be used within six hours. It can be difficult to use all the doses with the time limit when going out and injecting in the community.
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Wakayama is putting up good numbers, having first jabbed 37.5% of its old people as of Monday.
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In the case where a doctor has to go out and inject six people in the community, they run the risk of running out of time as, with transport time included, a single visit can take up to an hour.
Photo 19
Their solution, for example, has been to use four doses at a central vaccination site, and take out two doses of injections in the community.
Photo 20
In the case they followed, they jabbed four people at a clinic, got in a car, jabbed a 90-year-old man, and used the last dose to jab his wife who is also his caregiver.
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[Flipping back to workplace vaccinations, while] Big players JR East, JAL and ANA have thrown their hat into the ring [because they can…]
Photo 22
Kanden/KEPCO (Kansai Electric) for example has the floor space and five industrial doctors and plans to start vaccinating as soon after June 21 as they are ready to do so.
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For the sake of efficiency, the government has stipulated that initially at least, it will be OKing the program for companies with over 1000 employees.
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Small and medium-sized companies are nonplussed.
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This company has a total of 250 employees for its whole group and no doctor on the payroll.
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“The system as a whole seems completely geared towards big companies.”
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“It won’t be easy to get a doctor to come to our workplace.”
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Meanwhile, as of yesterday, traffic controls around the Olympic stadium etc. started up.
[Nearly four full months of traffic disruption.]
[And see the comments for an article in which Hashimoto promises to GPS track foreign media during the Olympics.]
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Expert panel chair Mr. Omi expressed his desire to convey his views as an expert on infection risk and other issues to the IOC through the relevant parties at a meeting of the House of Councillors’ Committee on Health, Labor and Welfare.
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Omi: It is important to convey the Japan situation to the IOC in a way that makes them understand and go, “Oh, so that’s how it is.”
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In relation to this, Minister of State for Economic Revitalization Nishimura said at a press conference, [“Mr. Omi is not saying that the panel of experts should discuss whether or not the Olympics should be held. He added,]
“I am also discussing with Chairman Omi how to reduce the risk of infection and the risk to the healthcare delivery system.
Photo 32
“But where recommendations are made, we must accept them views respond robustly.”
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Today, Suga and the head of the opposition go head to head in the Diet for the first time. Topics will include whether or not the Olympics will be held.