COVID-19, Current topics, JAPAN, NEWS & POLITICS

Tokyo’s infection rate spike after Game postponement

Written by Prisca Tang (Columnist / Senior Reporter) on

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Last week, the International Olympic Committee announced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until next year due to the epidemic.

According to Nippon’s data, as of April 2, 2020 there are 684 infections in Tokyo and 2,381 total cases in Japan. The same article pointed out that on April 2, Tokyo reports 97 new cases, a record for a single day and the city has the highest infection number among Japan. Kentaro Iwata, Kobe University Infection Control Specialist told CNN that “Tokyo could become ‘the next New York’ if the Japanese capital does not make drastic changes to its coronavirus strategy.

Former Japanese Prime Minster Yukio Hatoyama told Time that “in order to make an impression that the city was taking control of the coronavirus, Tokyo avoided making strict requests and made the number of patients look smaller.” He deplored that the government to put “Olympic first, not Tokyo’s residents”.

Last Saturday, current Prime Minster of Japan, Shinzo Abe, told the reporters that “Japan is now on the brink of a huge jump increases as it becomes increasingly difficult to trace and keep clusters under control.” He added that “Once infections overshoot, our strategy […] will instantly fall apart. Under the current situation, we are just barely holding up.”

However, the recent spike of cases rises suspicion that the country is hiding the number of cases to continue hosting Olympic. Only after the postponement is confirmed that the number of infections spiked. Maiko Tajima, an opposition lawmaker from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan questioned that “is this just a coincidence?”.

According to the same Time article, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said “there is absolutely no relationship between the Olympic postponements and the number of confirmed cases. He explained that the increase of cases is due to returning citizens from aboard.

The Prime Minister also denied that the country had controlled the numbers by limiting tests, or disguised the coronavirus deaths as “pneumonia fatalities”. Many western media started to question the connection between the Game and the virus.

According to Toronto City news, experts have found “a rise of untraceable cases mushrooming in Tokyo, Osaka and other urban areas – signs of an explosive increase in infections”.

Currently the government’s strategy has been to focus on “cluster and trace infection routes rather than testing everyone,” according to City News. “A guideline issued Saturday still says that tests will be conducted per clinical doctors’ advice. Experts set a high bar for testing eligibility, allowing them only for those linked to clusters or those with symptoms, because they fear massive testing will fill up beds that are needed for patients in severe need, and cause a collapse of medical systems,” the same article said.

Many other western media articles suggest that the Prime Minster is hinting a city or a national lockdown.

Currently, there are over 1 million cases of infection globally, including over 54 thousand deaths. United states have the highest number of cases, which is over 245 thousand. Spain, Italy and Germany also have more cases than Mainland China. Recently, the Prime Minster of Canada also announced that the rules of social distancing will remain for an indefinite time.

Readers, please wash your hands often and only leave the house when its necessary. Wish you all a safe quarant-cation.