13 July 2021 (Tuesday) – Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of maybe 1): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers

See photo captions for stories

SY: One thing I saw last night but I am not seeing covered in the press today:

The government said they had 40 million doses of Moderna but actually only have a third of that total til September.

As far I could gather, the government knew back in April that it wasn’t getting more than that.

They interviewed Kono live and seemed satisfied with his explanation of it, but it all seemed a bit suss to me.

Photo 01a
Guess, it’s over, the kicks are gone
What’s the use of tryin’ to hang on?
Somewhere we lost the key
So little left for you and me and it’s clear to see

Photo 01b
Japan covid-related topics from NHK’s 7am news bulletin today:
– Vaccine supply to some local authorities to be cut by 10%
– Tokyo under its fourth state of emergency

I didn’t bother posting the specific examples from the Tokyo story: A sports bar in Shibuya that was looking forward to the Olympics, Hato tour bus company facing massive cancellations of tours of the city after anticipating some increase in demand this summer due to vaccinations.

NHK’s exclusive was that the police have concluded that a traffic light pole that just fell over from the base the other month may have been caused by corrosion from dogs constantly peeing on it.
Remind me to dig out the lovely animation that accompanied this later.

Photo 02
[Taken from the NHK website]
1506 cases confirmed yesterday
[up vs. 1030 for the same day last week. FYI: 1002 for the same day two weeks ago.
Tuesday a.m. (i.e. Monday’s) figures are traditionally the lowest of the week.]
[Jan 22 1506 The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrive at the Vatican]

42 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
No new daily prefectural records appear to have been set.

Tokyo was 502.
[up vs. 342 for the same day last week
(Will we see 1000 cases in tomorrow’s report?)]

Osaka at 105
[vs. 78 for the same day last week]

Joining Tokyo and Osaka in triple figures were Tokyo’s neighbors:
Kanagawa 280
Chiba 114
Saitama 110
[Tokyo+3 account for 1006 or about 2/3 of today’s total]

The number of positives at immigration testing was 13

Photo 03
[Taken from the NHK website]
3 deaths confirmed yesterday, for a total of 14973.

The total of current active serious cases stands at 432, UP 7 on the previous day.

Total recorded cases at 822800.

Recovered cases at 787240 (up around 1600 on the previous day).
[Calculator is confused by Simon’s business-like attitude this morning. Did last night mean nothing to him?]
Total active cases are at 20587 (down around 100 on the previous day).
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total is 2.5%, falling slightly.

Photo 04
Here is the breakdown for Kansai from the regional bulletin.
158 cases for the region.
No deaths reported.

Photo 05
Osaka has had 7 straight days of over 100 cases (exact figures in top line).
Bottom half is yesterday’s number broken down by age group.

Photo 06
Tokyo’s 502 is 160 cases up on the same day last week and their 23rd straight day of being higher than the corresponding day of the previous week.

Photo 07
Yesterday, Tokyo reported a serious case in a child under 10 with no pre-existing conditions.
It is believed to be the first time for a child under 10 to be confirmed as a serious case in Tokyo.

Photo 08
The Tokyo metropolitan government says it is once again calling for you to Stay Home and refrain from non-essential, non-emergency errands.
[I don’t know about you but I have not really heard anybody deliver this message this time around, presumably because of the cognitive dissonance of calling for this while holding the Olympics]

Photo 09
Vax stuff now.
76.13% of the over 65s have been first jabbed.
46.6% have been second jabbed.

Photo 10
This constitutes 29.58% of the total population first jabbed, and 17.82% double jabbed (and total population includes children who are outside the scope of vaccination).

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[This vaccine distribution stuff hurts my head, and I think other people in the group know more about it. As far as I can understand…]
HellaWella has given guidance on how much [Pfizer] vaccine they will be distributing to local authorities weekly[?] for each two-week period between now and the end of August. [The country is expecting fresh deliveries of vaccine supplies in September.]
The second half of June was 16000 boxes (about 1.87 million jabs) per week[?]
First half of July, 11000 boxes.
Second half of July: 10600 boxes
First half of August: 10,000 boxes
Nearly a 40% reduction overall.

JW: The shipments in May and June were higher than what Pfizer/BioNTech will be shipping in July-October as well as higher than the local use rate, thus building up local stocks.

By the 9th course (July 5-July 18) some 91.5m Pfizer doses will have been distributed to municipalities. By Sunday, 7/11 some 57m doses had been recorded as used, with probably another 8m added this week. Add another 2m for shots stuck in VRS reporting limbo and it would bring the total to 67m.

That would mean 24.5m doses released by the government by the end of this week would still be sitting in local freezers. Given current daily dose numbers it means new supplies from the central government would spend an *average* of 3 weeks in local freezers before going into somebody’s arm.

Part of the problem is the uneven distribution of local stocks, which the government wants to address. Cities with more active vaccination programs could use more immediately while others still have plenty.

EOD: People in Neyagawa got a paper in their letter boxes today saying to forget about the previous vaccine plan. As for anyone under the age of 59 will not be getting vaccinated any time soon. Actually they have a big question mark there.

Photo 12

Last night, the MHLW informed the municipalities of the new quotas.

Photo 13

For the weeks of Aug 02 and Aug 09, when vaccine distribution will be 10,000 boxes,

Under the basic plan framework, of the 8000 boxes that were to be distributed to the municipalities [on a proportion of population basis] for the vaccination of the people ages 12-64, they will only distribute 7702 boxes, with about 10% withheld from local authorities whose currently held reserves exceed a certain limit.

JW: The limit, according to Kono’s earlier press conference, was supposed to be drawn at having six weeks worth of supply in stock, which — when other cities are running out of vaccine — seem a pretty big buffer. Even reserving 2nd doses along with first doses, which is already inefficient, would only tie up 3 weeks of supplies.

Photo 14

In practice this means that Osaka will get 148 boxes instead of 164, etc.

[List goes: Osaka city, Nagoya city, Sapporo city, Sendai city, Kitakyushu city, Tokyo Adachi ward]

Photo 15

For the remaining 2000 boxes plus the 2298 boxes withheld from local authorities [as per the previous slide], HellaWella will be asking prefectural authorities to distribute resources to municipalities that are genuinely experiencing a shortfall.

Photo 16

With the amount of vaccines needed not getting to local authorities, many places have suspended the making of new appointments for vaccinations [and I have heard plenty of first-hand accounts of appointments that have already been made being outright cancelled].

Photo 17

After doing the mayoral election count at this polling station in Nara…

Photo 18

…in 3.5 hours…

Photo 19

…they flipped the hall [back?] into a vaccination center.

Photo 20

[Is this anyone we know?]

Person who got vaccinated: “It’s a weight off my mind.”

Photo 21

Delightful animation