20200707 (Tuesday) Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of probably 1): Main News
Kyushu flooding and landslides were front and center again (around 50 dead and 10 or so missing.)
But Covid got coverage today.
See photo captions for stories. (Stephen Walker helped with the second half of today’s translations as I was busy at work.)
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Covid bits:
5th day over 100 for Tokyo infections
30% of medical workers say they feel depressed
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174 new cases confirmed yesterday, just narrowly avoiding topping 20k total cases
[I hear India just had 24000 in a single day.]
Kagoshima had 12 new cases, and I read that cases related to the host club down there have now topped 80 in total.
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102 cases reported in Tokyo yesterday with 42 of unknown origin.
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In-patients in Tokyo starting to rise too.
369 on the 5th, compared to 204 on June 20.
369 is a comparable number to the situation at the end of May. [Still relatively low…]
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Saitama prefecture (16 new cases) says it has entered the phase where the disease is spreading again, and have moved to secure more hospital beds in anticipation of more patients
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Saitama prefecture will hold a meeting of its own panel of experts today and discuss whether or not to request people to stay at home, etc.
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Despite these factors, the country is on course for further relaxing of restrictions soon.
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From July, the plan is to raise the maximum size of events to 5000 participants [paving the way for larger concerts and the return of spectators to baseball and J-League games.]
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Taskforce leader guy Nishimura says the awareness is that the situation is different from that of the beginning of April…
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…and these restrictions will be relaxed as planned.
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Meanwhile, Omi talked about their “new thinking” about testing.
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Cases are categorized into 3 groups depending on symptoms, etc.
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1. People with symptoms
If you have symptoms, they will give you a sputum-based PCR or an antigen test.
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2. Those with no symptoms but at high risk of infection.
==> Thorough PCR testing
– All the close contacts of any case that has been confirmed at a hospital or old people’s home
– People connected with a cluster centered on a night entertainment business.
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3. Those with no symptoms and at low risk of infection.
– Testing should be expanded so that recovery in social and economic activity can move forward.
–> Requires national consensus (understanding/agreement of the citizenry)
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“How to achieve a balance between social and economic activities, and COVID-19 response measures, is an issue that the public must grapple with.”
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“We will expand and enhance testing within the current conditions.”
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“Our job is to propose to the government a substantial fundamental strategy.”
[with the subtext that it is up to the government to actually listen to that advice or not]
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A survey was conducted by the Japan Red Cross Medical Center.
It was done during April and May of this year and was given to all 2000 medical workers at the center.
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Of the 848 workers who answered the survey, 237 of them, or 27.9%, said they were feeling depressed.
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[Stress factors included:]
– Dealing with an unknown virus
– The possibly of unknowingly infecting patients or family members.
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Factors may have negatively affected mental health include medical staff staying alone at hotels (instead of going back home at night) in order not to risk infecting family members.
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The Louvre reopened after 4 months. Masks were required for the over 11s.