11 July 2021 (Sunday) – Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of 1): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers
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Japan covid-related topics from NHK’s 7am news bulletin today:
– Tokyo’s SofE starts tomorrow, yesterday’s Tokyo daily cases stood at 950
– Special report: Once more to be moved by live performances
I didn’t bother with the special report as it was mainly focused on one bar’s mission to keep the Japanese love of “chanson” alive. However, it did go on to mention that 600,000 people are employed in lighting and sound support, etc. for live events, and they did look at how a big PA company was struggling, and trying to stay afloat by using some of their warehouse space for logistics of other kinds of deliveries.
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2458 cases confirmed yesterday
[up vs. 1881 for the same day last week. FYI: 1633 for the same day two weeks ago.]
[11 July 2458 The One-World Supreme Court orders the all-human Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to integrate and allow the telepathic worm people of Saturn’s Dione moon to study there (500 years after the US Supreme Court issued another famous ruling on integration).]
43 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
No new daily prefectural records appear to have been set, but we are seeing some relatively high numbers in regional areas such as 15 for Ishikawa and 25 for Fukushima.
Tokyo was a big 950.
[up vs. 716 for the same day last week]
Osaka at 200
[vs. 148 for the same day last week]
Joining Tokyo and Osaka in triple figures were Tokyo’s neighbors:
Kanagawa 310
Chiba 204
Saitama 147
[Tokyo+3 account for 1611 or about 2/3 of today’s total]
The number of positives at immigration testing was 6
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11 deaths confirmed yesterday, for a total of 14964.
The total of current active serious cases stands at 428, down 13 on the previous day.
Total recorded cases at 819265.
Recovered cases at 784088 (up around 1800 on the previous day).
[With trepidation, Simon’s hand slid down to reach the cosine button, so rarely touched in daily life, and gently began to explore its trigonometry functions.]
Total active cases are at 20213 (up around 630 on the previous day) and back over 20000.
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total is 2.46 %, rising slightly
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Tokyo’s 950 is 234 cases up on the same day last week and their 21st straight day of being higher than the corresponding day of the previous week]
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Friday’s Shibuya crossing foot traffic was up 37% daytime and 13% nighttime compared to the week before.
[The new Tokyo SofE starts tomorrow following on from the *highly effective* back-to-back SofE and Manbo periods.]
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Delta variant is a major concern in Tokyo+3 with the L452R mutation believed to be present in 34% of current cases in the region and expected to reach 75% by the end of July, and then account for pretty much all cases the further we get through August.
[This week, I realized I didn’t have a clear handle on Delta variant. A colleague of mine said he’d heard that Delta was weaker than the original strain and no more serious than the common cold. I was pretty sure this was wrong but I actually didn’t have anything solid to offer in terms of number of serious cases and mortality. Here’s where I am at:
Delta is 1.95 times more infectious than the original strain. And in today’s program they said it was 1.4 times more infectious than the Alpha (UK) variant.
There seem to be reports that Delta is leading to more serious cases among younger age groups (hospitalizations for people in their 20s to 40s at higher rates). But I don’t have any solid data on whether the overall rate of serious cases or mortality are up under Delta. (I am sure people will help me out with this in the comments.)
There are reports that Delta reduces the efficacy of vaccination, but another report claimed that Pfizer is 94% effective in preventing an infection turning serious, even against Delta (although it might not prevent you getting infected).
My colleague’s claim that Delta is only as bad as the common cold appears to be a misunderstanding of reports that Delta presents with symptoms closer to the common cold (e.g. runny nose) than to the fancy loss of taste and smell, etc. that were the famous symptoms of covid (even though these symptoms actually only presented in 25% of cases anyway).
Looking forward to your help.]
JY: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210709/Why-is-the-Delta-SARS-CoV-2-variant-so-concerning.aspx
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Although it had been decided that Olympic baseball and softball games in Fukushima would be held with spectators, they’ve done a U-turn on that and will now hold the games behind closed doors.
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Prefectural governor: Unfortunately, what was supposed to be held as the “recovery” games [following the triple disaster in the Tohoku area] have changed shape considerably due to the current battle with covid19.
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Fukushima joins Tokyo+3 and Hokkaido in not allowing spectators.
Miyagi, Shizuoka and Ibaraki [which are subject to neither SofE or Manbo] are still planning to allow spectators.
JC: In my understanding, Ibaraki is only planning to allow some school kid groups to a few games.
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[There was a little sequence of Bach commenting on the games.
I particularly liked this screen shot which I have cynically stripped of context.]
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“The most important thing is that the games will go ahead.”
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“People all over the world will be glued to their TV screens and with you in their hearts, cheering you on. Let’s all meet up in Tokyo.”
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Apparently there is a thing where a week or so after receiving the Moderna vaccine, some people’s arms around the vaccination site get red and itchy. This has been dubbed “Moderna Arm” overseas.
MZ: I got my “Moderna arm” on day 8, now, after another 10 days, it’s mostly gone. Besides the itchiness my arm was tingling, felt heavy and weak, especially the first couple days. Just so people know what they can possibly expect.
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A research group of the MHLW conducted an analysis for the first time on data of symptoms for 9 days and onward for 1447 SDF personnel who had their first jab of Moderna vaccine.
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The found that on the 9th day, 3.5% of people reported redness on their arm.
For the 10th day, this was 4%.
JY: Husband got this from influenza vaccine a couple times. Not that new for vaccines, just unfortunate.
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Prof guy: In most cases, the symptoms subside with time. Please take measures calmly such as cooling the infection site.
SY:
