26 May 2022, Thursday — Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 1 (of 1): Headlines and (yesterday’s) numbers
Day 759 of doing these daily posts continuously.
See photo captions for stories.
Photo 01
Japan covid-related topics in NHK’s 7am news bulletin today:
Fourth shots [second booster shots] begin with the aim of preventing serious cases
Government preparing to resume acceptance of [some] foreign tourists from next month
And the 9pm bulletin last night had the covid numbers.
Photo 2a
35190 new cases confirmed
[vs. 42161 for the same day last week. 45955 the same day two weeks ago.]
47 out of 47 prefectures reported cases yesterday.
No new daily case records.
Nowhere with five digits
Quadruple figures in 10 prefectures:
Okinawa, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Osaka, Aichi, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Hokkaido
35 prefectures in triple figures
2 prefectures in double figures
Tokyo on 3929 [vs. 4355 same day last week]
Osaka on 2927 [vs. 3497 same day last week]
[Tokyo has been down vs. same day previous week for 12 straight days now]
The number of positives at immigration testing was 74
Photo 02b
The total of current active serious cases stands at 103, up 3 from the previous day.
43 deaths announced yesterday, for a total of 30438
Total recorded cases at 8715214
Recovered cases at 8314118 (around 35,000 recovered cases from the previous day)
Total active cases are at 370,658 (up around 100 vs the previous day).
Percentage of active cases as a percentage of the grand total is 4.25%
Photo 03
Fourth jabs (second booster jabs) started across the country from yesterday.
Photo 04
These use Pfizer or Moderna, with a gap of 5 months since the third jab.
It is for the over 60s, and those over 18 with pre-existing conditions or people [deemed by their doctor to be] at risk of developing serious symptoms.
Photo 05
In general, local authorities will send vax coupons to the over 60s.
For people with pre-existing conditions [since there are not necessarily on record at the ward office], the system varies by local authority, but for example, you might self-declare and the ward office sends you a coupon.
Photo 06
According to research done in Israel, 4th jabs have been confirmed effective against infection, serious cases and deaths.
Photo 07
However, while the efficacy against serious cases continues for a certain period, the period in which it is effective against infection is quite short.
[Because of this information, there is a shift in tone about 4th jabs here in Japan. The govt. is emphasizing their effectiveness against developing serious symptoms but is not claiming much in the way of prevention of infection, hence the limited rollout to only certain groups.]
Photo 08
The MHLW has compiled its thinking about where masks are not needed into a handy leaflet.
Photo 09
Outside, masks are not needed if:
You are having a conversation two meters apart. [Surely nobody does this?]
You are walking or running in the park.
Photo 10
Indoors, masks are not needed if:
You are properly socially distanced and not talking such as reading in a library or watching a play.
Photo 11
Masks are recommended:
In crowded places and rush hour commutes
When sharing face time with old people
When going to the hospital
Photo 12
[The tourist stuff didn’t actually contain any new stuff – they didn’t even mention that the first tour of 11 heavily supervised (and suspiciously Asian-American) US tourists has landed in Japan.]
Japan will increase its cap on daily entrants to the country from the current 10,000 to 20,000 on June 01.
Photo 13
To cope with this, border measures will be eased based on the classification of countries of departure into 3 groups based on a risk assessment.
Photo 14
Kishida is expected to officially announce that Japan will start accepting foreign tourists again from next month. [I heard later in the month.]
Photo 15
Since the overall cap on entrants to Japan of 20k is still very low, the govt. is discussing initially limiting tourism to guided [i.e. supervised] tours…
Photo 16
…and then ramping up the tourist numbers in stages to bring back the socio-economic good times.
Photo 17
It will be the first time in two years to allow foreign entrants to Japan for tourism purposes.