11 June 2022, Saturday– Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of 1):
Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers
Day 775 of doing these daily posts continuously.
See photo captions for stories.
Photo 01
Japan covid-related topics in NHK’s 7am news bulletin today:
Foreign tourists “Anticipation and anxiety”
[They pretty much ran the same story a week ago with the same title.
Three or four times in the last two weeks has been interview a tourist-oriented business that hopes to bring the good times back financially, and then interview a hotel owner or tour guide who is worried about dealing with foreign tourists who they worry won’t follow Japan guidelines.]
Photo 2a
But first the numbers:
15600 new cases confirmed
[vs. 19271 for the same day last week. 27549 the same day two weeks ago.]
47 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
No new daily case records.
Nowhere with five digits
Quadruple figures in 3 prefectures:
Okinawa, Osaka, Tokyo
32 prefectures in triple figures
15 prefectures in double figures
Tokyo on 1600 [vs. 2111 same day last week]
Osaka on 1419 [vs. 1530 same day last week]
[Tokyo has been down vs. same day previous week for 28 straight days now]
The number of positives at immigration testing was 10.
[Border testing was relaxed even as double the number of people are being allowed into the country from June 01.]
Photo 02b
The total of current active serious cases stands at 77, no change from the previous day.
21 deaths announced yesterday, for a total of 30881
Total recorded cases at 9026853
Recovered cases at 8800966 (around 18,000 recovered cases from the previous day)
Total active cases are at 195,006 (down around 2000 vs the previous day.
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total of cases is 2.16%.
Photo 03
So for the foreign tourist piece, our first stop is a market in Hokkaido that does this super-fresh smorgasbord raw fish rice bowl.
Photo 04
Before covid, overseas tourists – such as tours and cruise ship stopovers from Asia accounted for 30-40% of their customers.
Photo 05
“If foreign tourists come, maybe things will go back to the way they were before.”
Photo 06
This place that shows the craft of gold leaf decoration has had a spate of inquiries mainly from tour group organizers from the US and Europe.
Photo 07
“We would very much like foreign tourists to come here and get Kanazawa pumping again*.”
[*Loose translation advisory.]
Photo 08
Foreign tourists and ThorPreMe.
Photo 09
[Zoom call with a Philippine travel company.]
“What about if a portion of the tour group wants to go out somewhere [unaccompanied].”
Photo 10
“They would need to tell the tour guide in advance…”
Photo 11
“…and it would be beholden on the tour guide to confirm where the tourists are going and how long they stay there.”
Photo 12
Things that tour guides are asked to do (from the govt. guidelines):
Insist on mask-wearing and ThorPreMe.
Recording all movements (meals, sitting position on tour buses, etc.)
If someone develops a fever, the guide will get them to see a medical institution.
Photo 13
“Tour guides will have this extra burden in addition to the work they have usually done until now.”
Photo 14
“Especially since looking dealing with a situation where an infected person emerges is included [in a tour guide’s duties]…”
Photo 15
“…they will have to go off somewhere with the patient, and won’t be able to accompany the other members of the group.”
Photo 16
Headline: About 80% effective in preventing the onset of illness.
Photo 17
A group including Nagasaki university did an analysis of data for Jan-Mar for 5169 men and women over the age of 16, tested at 13 medical institutions in 10 prefectures.
Photo 18
In old people over the age of 65, two weeks after receiving a third booster shot of Pfizer and Moderna, efficacy in preventing onset of illness was 80.5% compared to unvaccinated people.
Photo 19
Efficacy in preventing onset of illness in ages 16-64 were as follows:
After two jabs
Within 90 days 35.6%
91-180 days 34.5%
181 days and over 34.8%
After three jabs
68.7%
Photo 20
The research group concludes that for the over 16s (including old people), third jabs boost effectiveness even against the omicron strain.
Photo 21
MHLW expert group chair Wakita says [the govt.] needs to thoroughly promote the effectiveness and safety of vaccination and further raise the vaccination rate [in the population].