03 July 2021 (Saturday) – Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of maybe 1): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers
See photo captions for stories.
Photo 01a
TIL I learned about the wasp-waisted Saturday anchor Rika this week: She is 26. She speaks pretty great English (sounds to me like she maybe did university in the States).
Edit: A quick dig reveals she was born in the US and is a ‘returnee.’
Photo 01b
Japan covid-related topics from NHK’s 7am news bulletin today.
– Strong concerns about a resurgence of infection.
– Changes to the opening and closing ceremony times
– Special report: Sandel talks covid
I stayed with the news all the way through the sports and the Sandel report today, but there was no mention of the content of this second headline. [I reviewed the show on NHK Plus and it definitely wasn’t there. However, I have put the relevant article in the comments.]
I won’t cover the Michael Sandel piece in detail. He was just discussing how covid19 has highlighted inequality in society and his concern that people believe their fortunate circumstances are a product of their own hard work, while also believing that people in difficult circumstances only have themselves to blame when in fact they simply drew the short straw in the luck department (e.g. got laid off during covid). He also said we need to respect people’s work no matter what kind of work they do (i.e. the so-called essential workers) and he quoted on MLK on that.
Photo 02
[Taken from the NHK website]
1777 cases confirmed yesterday
[slightly up vs. 1709 for the same day last week. FYI: 1623 for the same day two weeks ago.]
[Dred Scott was born on 17 March 1777]
42 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
No new daily prefectural records appear to have been set.
Tokyo was 660
[up vs. 562 for the same day last week.]
Osaka at 123
[vs. 120 for the same day last week]
Joining Tokyo and Osaka in triple figures were all of Tokyo’s neighbors:
Kanagawa 230
Chiba 149
Saitama 125
The number of positives at immigration testing was 11.
https://www.onthisday.com/people/dred-scott
AO: Just a few days ago (6/29) the US House of Representatives voted to replace the statue of Chief Justice Taney, who wrote the absolutely horrible Dred Scott decision with a statue of Justice Thurgood Marshall.
https://apple.news/AcQyHLbwFReGLkczbcU8Dfw
Photo 03
[Taken from the NHK website]
25 deaths confirmed yesterday, for a total of 14846.
The total of current active serious cases stands at 511, down 6 on the previous day.
Total recorded cases at 804036.
Recovered cases at 770667 (up around 1100 on the previous day).
[caresses calculator]
Total active cases are at 18523 (UP around 66 on the previous day), another rise.
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total is 2.3% (holding steady on the previous day)
Photo 04
Total of 1164 cases in Tokyo+3.
Kanagawa is over 200 for the third straight day.
Photo 05
Tokyo’s 660 is not quite 100 up on the corresponding day of the previous week. This makes 13 straight days of the day being higher than the corresponding day of the previous week.
Photo 06
Here is a breakdown of the Tokyo figures by age group.
Photo 07
Kansai figures on the regional bulletin.
191 for the region with Osaka on its 4th straight day of over 100 cases.
4 deaths confirmed.
Photo 08
With 3 weeks to the Olympics now, athletes and staff are starting to arrive in droves.
Photo 09
Arrivals
Photo 10
Oh, Canada!
Photo 11
The Olympic torch relay has reached Chiba.
Photo 12
The public road relay has been cancelled and replaced with torch touching behind closed doors.
Photo 13
Koike came back to the office [exemplifying gaman instead of modeling the remote work the capital could do with].
Photo 14
Expert-y guy says we are at the doorway of the 5th Wave in Tokyo+3.
Photo 15
He says that the extension of Manbo and other measures including, if necessary, the declaration of a State of Emergency…
Photo 16
“…It is important that these measures are taken without hesitation [if necessary].”
Photo 17
Meanwhile, NHK is a couple of days behind in reporting confusion on the horizon for the country’s vaccination program.
Osaka mayor Matsui popped up the other day to say that appointment taking for first jabs for slots from July 12 onwards would be temporarily suspended for Osaka city [Pfizer] group vaccination and private clinic vaccinations. [I believe this does not affect Intex which uses Moderna.]
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210702/p2a/00m/0na/005000c
Photo 18
Chiba city is also not accepting new appointments for jabs for the time being.
Photo 19
More and more local authorities are announcing a temporary suspension of new vaccination appointments amid a lack of clarity surrounding the government’s plans going forward regarding the supply of Pfizer vaccine.
Photo 20
The country has already taken delivery of a supply of 100 million doses. [This appears to mean “of all types”]
Photo 21
From July to September the government expects to receive about 70 million additional doses.
And from October onwards, about 20 million doses.
[However, the government expects that the supply of the Pfizer vaccine may fall.]
Photo 22
The govt. expects to receive a supply 50 million doses of Moderna vaccine by the end of September.
Photo 23
The government says it can secure enough [total] supplies to give everyone who wants to get vaccinated by the end of September.
Photo 24
Kono says the supply of [Pfizer] to local authorities is about 1/3 of the amount they want.
Photo 25
Going forward, we would like to ask them to use the supply they have already received well, and adjust their vaccination speed to the volume of supply.
Photo 26
Delta continues to concern the world. The US reports Delta variant has now been confirmed in all 50 states and accounts for over 26% of new cases.
Photo 27
90% of delta variant cases confirmed in South Korea are in greater Seoul. [The reporter actually says “India variant”]
JW: …which is not the same as “90% of cases in and around the capital are Delta”, just in case anyone is misreading it that way. But that’s only a matter of time.
Photo 28
[And speaking of India,] India now has “Delta Plus” with an extra mutation.
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Sports news, and Masters’ winner Hideki Matsuyama has tested positive for covid while on the PGA tour, raising concerns about his participation in the Olympic golf.
Photo 30
Meanwhile Mitsubishi Electric give some deep bows for faking safety data on air compressor components used in train brakes.
RR: I’ve attached a link to an impactful podcast on this subject from Radiolab. Talked about Justin Trudeau, a case in Massachusetts (back when Dukakis was governor), and a sad story from Stanford Medical Hospital. Worth a listen, in my opinion.