10 July 2022, Sunday — Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of 1): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers
Day 804 of doing these daily posts continuously.
See photo captions for stories.
Photo 01a
Not only were there no Japan covid-related topics in NHK’s 7am news bulletin today, I couldn’t even find a 7am news bulletin today. Maybe the news was suspended due to today’s election? I don’t know.
Speaking of suspending things, I haven’t seen anybody suggest today’s election should be postponed, but I can’t help but wonder about the effect of a wave of LDP sympathy in the wake of Shinzo Abe’s murder.
Anyhoo…
55018 new cases confirmed
[vs. 24903 for the same day last week, 16593 the same day two weeks ago.]
47 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
New records for daily cases today in 4 prefectures: Oita (641), Ehime (654), Shimane (754 ) and Tottori (289)
Nowhere with five digits
Quadruple figures in 12 prefectures:
Kyoto rejoins the quadruple club, along with Okinawa, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Hyogo, Osaka, Aichi, Shizuoka, Kanagawa (over 4000), Saitama, Chiba and Tokyo [vs. 7 prefectures same day last week]
35 prefectures in triple figures [vs. 35 prefectures same day last week]
Nowhere in double figures [vs. 5 prefectures same day last week]
Nowhere in single figures
Tokyo on 9716 [vs. 3616 same day last week]
Osaka on 5567 [vs. 2545 same day last week]
The number of positives at immigration testing was another solid 25.
[Border testing was relaxed even as the number of people being allowed into the country has doubled from June 01.]
Photo 01b
The total of current active serious cases stands at 74, up 3 vs. the previous day.
12 deaths announced yesterday, for a total of 31433
Total recorded cases at 9656246
Recovered cases at 9267139 (around 22,000 recovered cases up from the previous day)
Total active cases are at 357,674 (up around 33000 vs the previous day).
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total of historical cases is 3.7%.
Photo 03
Tokyo’s Saturday case numbers were 9716.
6100 cases and 2.7 times up on the same day last week.
(The country as a whole is more than double the cases for the same day previous week too.)
Photo 04
Tottori’s 289 pales in comparison to Tokyo’s numbers but this is actually their fourth straight day of setting a new case number record.
Photo 05
Despite this, the prefecture tournament to determine which teams will be heading to the Japan High School tournament at Koshien this summer has gotten underway, with the general public allowed in to view for the first time in three years.
Photo 06
The Tottori tournament is practicing ThorPreMe by dividing spectators into three areas: the cheer teams, the parents and guardians, and the general public.
Photo 07
Meanwhile, Saturday night’s game between the Yakult Swallows and the Hanshin Tigers has been called off because 14 members of the Swallows, including the manager and one of the star players, have tested positive for covid.
Photo 08
Yesterday, I said that the Japanese media would probably not be going into too much detail about how the gun that killed Abe was made. (I don’t know why, but I cannot bring myself to use the word “assassinated” in this case.)
Well, it turns out I was wrong. NHK practically showed a schematic and got a firearms expert to explain it. (Basically, the post from David Mc I reproduced yesterday was pretty spot on about the gun’s design and mechanics.) The cylinder diameter was 2cm, and it was described as a “matlock-type” gun that could fire two consecutive rounds, but is basically useless after that – a disposable camera-type gun, if you will.
[Details are emerging of a religious angle to the shooting, and unfortunately a Korean connection to the church sect involved, which will probably rile up the right-wingers and conspiracy theorists, even while the Korean connection is mostly coincidental.]
Photo 09
Questions have of course emerged about the security detail and police protection for Abe at the time.
I only mention this because “SP” stands for Security Police and is basic the elite bodyguards for Japan’s VIP. They have taken on an aura of coolness over the past few years due to a Japanese drama and, if I remember rightly, spin-off movie about them: suit wearing, cool under pressure, armed and hobnobbing with the elites. Abe’s death is a bit of a blot on their copybook, but still they took down the shooter without a single gun drawn.
SF: The SP movie is in the Netflix Top Ten Movies in Japan category as of Sunday evening.
Photo 10
Finally, just a public safety announcement: This season sees a lot of fires due to what is known in Japanese as “tracking.” Dust builds up between the socket and the prongs of neglected and undusted electrical plugs. The high humidity gets absorbed by the lint causing a short circuit between the plug prongs which ignites the lint and causes fires.
Please go around and clean your plug sockets, particularly if you have a washing machine or such plugged in on a balcony open to the elements.
EAM: The permanent fix is GFCI, ground fault circuit interrupters, which look like a regular outlet, but with a little button, a circuit breaker, that pops out when there is a spark caused by water, heat, dust or a frayed wire. They are necessary hardware in hospitals, where sparks are very dangerous, and outlets near water supplies. They should be everywhere, frankly, and cost a couple of bucks more than a standard outlet. Change ‘em!