20200713 (Monday) Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of probably 1): Main News
Lots of repetition of the usual soundbites today, as you’ll see.
See photo captions for stories.
Photo 01
Today’s Japan Covid-related NHK morning news topics:
– Tokyo had over 200 new cases for the 4th day running
– Expert calls for variation [by area] in the measure taken
I didn’t stick around for the later headline, but presumably this is connected with local clinics who have seen a drop in people coming in for no-Covid ailments and treatments:
– 30% of medical institutions planning to cut their summer bonus
SY: Facebook’s auto face-recognition has labelled Maho as a friend of mine from the wine business in Tokyo. Think I might leave that there…
Photo 02
408 new cases yesterday.
No new deaths, discharged patients surpassed 18000, out of a total that will blow past 22,000 tomorrow.
20 in quarantine after coming back from overseas is the biggest number I remember seeing here.
206 in Tokyo
23 in Kanagawa, 31 in Chiba, 31 in Saitama
32 in Osaka
8 in Kyoto, 7 in Hyogo, 5 each in Nara and Wakayama
5 in Fukuoka
4 in Nagasaki
8 in Kagoshima
SW: Kansai bingo. Has this ever happened before?
Kanto bingo ruined by that laggard Gunma again.
Photo 03
206 in Tokyo.
[This happens to be exactly the same number as the day before.]
Photo 04
Chiba’s 31 is the most they’ve had since the end of the State of Emergency.
Photo 05
Kanagawa recorded the most cases since the SofE the day before with 34.
Photo 06
Osaka’s total of 32 brought out Governor Yoshimura and his oddly small-fonted sign.
Photo 07
Unlike Koike, he is sticking with the numerical targets he already set at the end of the State of Emergency, and so Osaka’s numbers for yesterday have triggered a Yellow traffic light alert.
JAG: Numerical goals for each light:
Photo 08
The chair of the Japan Infectious Diseases Society says “There is chance[/fear] that a second wave of infections has already begun.”
Photo 09
“With four days of over 200 new cases, one can’t help but think that this is a second wave.”
Photo 10
However, neither the Tokyo metro govt. nor the national government are calling for widescale business closures or to Stay Home.
Photo 11
And just recently relaxed rules on the number of event attendees.
Photo 12
This is because the situation is different from before.
Reasons for this include an increase in PCR testing in Tokyo from 1000-1500 people in May to some days lately of up to 3400 people. [They said people, not tests here]
MBC: 150.000 per day in Germany.
Photo 13
The number of positive tests going up is also “a result of heavy testing of people connected to hostess clubs [and cases being traceable for the most part]”
MBC: They’re still stuck to this… They really think they can empty the bathtub with a spoon.
SY: Is that a common expression in French or something (like the string to cut butter one the other day)?
MBC: Inventer le fil à couper le beurre (invent the string to cut the butter), a common idiom, have an idea incredibly banal introduced as absolutely fondamental!
Vider la baignoire à la petite cuiller (empty the bathtub with a coffee spoon) is also a common idiom very easy to catch too. Useless, meaningless, ridiculous.
Photo 14
Also, the medical system is not under pressure, with less than 10 people with serious symptoms compared with 1000 beds reserved for Covid patients in the capital.
Photo 15
However, the rate of positive tests has gone up from around 1% at the end of May to around 6% and rising now.
Photo 16
And we are once again seeing a rise in the number of in-patients.
Photo 17
“Because the impact on the economy and society is big, there are limits to applying requests for business closures or asking people to refrain from going out.”
Photo 18
“We need to concentrate our efforts on the main areas of outbreaks, such as with night entertainment businesses.”
Photo 19
“Although it is clear that preventing people’s movement and limiting their contacts is effective in limiting infections…”
Photo 20
“It is also clear that clusters are occurring centered on night entertainment districts.”
Photo 21
“For those people, we need to thoroughly conduct testing. It is important that we vary the measures according to the situation.”
Photo 22
Meanwhile the Go To Travel campaign that aims to kickstart consumer spending by subsidizing travel expenses will go live from July 22.
Photo 23
The government has no plans to change its policy of expanding economic activity.
Photo 24
However, based on concerns people have raised about people moving from the capital [with a high infection rate] to other parts of the country…
Photo 25
…they will once again issue warnings to take thorough infection prevention measures, and ask people who are not feeling well to stay at home.
Photo 26
The segment ended with a subtle reminder that we are not anywhere near the kind of situation other countries are putting up with: 12 million infected worldwide, 3 million of those in the US with 135,000 deaths.
Photo 27
…with businesses opening and closing again, and restrictions reimposed.
AO: To be fair, most of the US seems to not be interested in stopping Covid either. Over the weekend we looked it up and the only places in the US where dining is still not allowed indoors is New York City, Philadelphia, and the entire state of NJ. We just got orders to wear a mask outdoors if you can’t social distance. I’m pretty sure we’re the only state to have such a rule now.