Tokyo Covid-19 alert increased to the highest level based on recent upturn
Kanako Mita and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis keeps on ebbing and flowing in Japan since the virus entered in the middle of January. Recently, after conditions got better in most of May and early June, the situation is becoming problematic. Therefore, even though mainly symbolic, the coronavirus alert rose to the highest level in Tokyo.
Last week new highs of infections were recorded in Tokyo with 243 cases on July 10. Hence, while yesterday the figure had reached 165, this is still dramatically up from the middle of May.
In this period, the number plummeted to extremely low numbers. This included new lows of 2 and 3 new infections per day.
Of concern, is that many new infections are untraceable. If this continues, then clearly the situation will spiral. Thus the usual warnings have been put in place about avoiding the nightlife angle, parties, and so forth.
Koike Yuriko, the Governor of Tokyo, uttered, “We decided that we need to raise the alert level to warn residents that infection is spreading.”
Equally important, people are being told to avoid travel outside of Tokyo because Osaka is also seeing a gradual increase. However, the interconnection of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama with Tokyo means that this is wishful thinking based on the working angle alone.
Of course, the gist is to refrain from traveling further afield. This highlights the backward step since optimism began in late May and early June. Therefore, the psychological angle – and maddening factor of nightlife and the sex entertainment angle to unneeded parties – is extremely irksome for people taking full precautions.
Hence, after six months of the coronavirus being in Japan, greater enforced measures are needed to close down all loopholes. Thus Koike needs to do more to stem the main areas of new infections rather than just requesting.
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/ – Tokyo Metropolitan Government website for updates about the coronavirus crisis in Tokyo.
https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html – Japan and Tokyo Covid-19 news with more analysis
https://covid19japan.com/ – Japan regional coronavirus statistics
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ World coronavirus statistics
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