20200701 (Wednesday) Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of maybe 2): Main News
So this year is half over already. I am predicting that the next big thing will be a solar flare. You heard it here first. Anyway, here is today’s news.
See photo captions for stories.
Photo 01
Today’s Japan Covid-related NHK morning news topics:
– Covid19: preparing for the second wave
– Japan starts charging for plastic shopping bags from today [turns out there is a minor corona angle to this story]
– Significant drop in Tokyo flu deaths
There is also an item called “Maina Point” which is pronounced “Minor Point” but which was short for “My Number Card Point” – it turns out you will be able to do cashless payments with your My Number Card and received shopping points. The system starts in September, but you can apply to join it now.
TH: Hmmm… Seems a bit dangerous using your social security number card as a cash card…..
Photo 02
138 new cases yesterday.
54 in Tokyo
31 in Kanagawa [wow], 7 in Chiba, 3 inTochigi, 10 in Saitama, 1 in Gunma
13 in Hokkaido.
4 in Fukuoka.
Another 6 in quarantine after coming back from overseas.
JB: For perspective, the US is now over 40,000 cases a day.
Photo 03
5 in Osaka
2 in Kyoto
1 in Hyogo
Photo 04
Yokohama city had 28 [out of their prefecture total of 31]
Photo 05
This is their first time over 20 since April 23 during the SofE.
Photo 06
26 out of 28 of these were from a host club.
Photo 07
One guy there tested positive towards the end of June, so the whole staff decided to get tested and it turned out to be a group infection.
Photo 08
Tokyo’s 54 is their fifth day over 50.
Photo 09
Task Force leader/economic revival minister Nishimura says the key thing is to prevent secondary infections.
Photo 10
And to not have infections breakout to high risk places like old people’s homes and hospitals.
Photo 11
Meanwhile Tokyo is going to change the things that it looks at and how it treats the numbers in a new Tokyo Monitoring system.
Photo 12
The two main pillars are the “infection situation” and the “medical system”
Photo 13
They will analyze the latent (potential) spread of infection, and community-acquired infection..
And conjecture[?!] about the pressure on the medical system
Photo 14
They will take these into account along with the items they have already been monitoring [the seven items I listed up last week] and will ask for an analysis from a panel of doctors and experts at the pace of once a week.
Photo 15
The city will evaluate their findings and decide whether to issue any cautions.
Photo 16
However, they won’t set any threshold figures for issuing these warnings.
Photo 17
And there won’t be any “Tokyo Alerts” for now.
Photo 18
The Health Ministry has voiced its concern.
Photo 19
Someone connected with the ministry: “The number of new infections in Tokyo have exceeded those indicated by the Health and Welfare Ministry for calling for cooperation from society.”
Photo 20
“As the population of Tokyo is very high, we think they need to issue a request for cooperation as soon as possible.”
Photo 21
Governor Koike says action should not be taken just based on any one number but that they should make a judgement including all the numbers and also the current feeling. [presumably she means how much awareness people seem to have of the dangers, etc.]
MA: Well, she just broke the streak of solid female leaders who handled their countries or regions’ outbreaks well.
TH: https://www.facebook.com/nzherald.co.nz/videos/274670743792141/
TH: Summary, New Zealand will remain cautious, people can enjoy having freedoms without fears of catching it due to the measure NZ took and continues to take, they are preparing a huge capacity of beds and facilities to allow for treatment of NZ residents abroad as they return to NZ and sure encourages them to return home and says NZ wants them to come back and is prepared and legally they should so they don’t end up in a stateless situation, they are preparing to both treat them if infected and quarantine them till they can enter society proper, the political opposition seems to be calling for NZ boarders to be opened rapidly while the PM is being clear about the need to move cautiously or they will lose the freedom and success that they have had
Photo 22
It’s not a question of flipping a switch on or off when a certain number is hit.
SY: Ironically, although she is talking metaphorically, a Tokyo Alert literally involved flipping a lightswitch on Rainbow bridge when a certain number of new cases was reached.
Photo 23
It needs to be done more holistically.
Photo 24
The new monitoring items will be put into effect on an experimental basis from today.