Tokyo adopts tough rules to curb spread
India overtakes Brazil
TOKYO, April 12, (AP): Tokyo adopted tougher measures against the coronavirus Monday as it struggles to curb the rapid spread of a more contagious variant ahead of the Olympics in a country where less than 1% of people have been vaccinated.
Japan started its vaccination drive with medical workers and expanded Monday to older residents, with the first shots being given in about 120 selected places around the country.
The tougher COVID-19 rules, just three weeks after a state of emergency ended in the capital, allow Tokyo’s governor to mandate shorter opening hours for bars and restaurants, punish violators and compensate those who comply. The measures remain through May 11.
The status was also raised for Kyoto in western Japan and the southern island prefecture of Okinawa, where cases have surged in recent weeks. The near-emergency status there is to continue through May 5, the end of Japan’s “Golden Week” holidays, to discourage traveling.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike has asked residents to avoid nonessential trips and practice social distancing. She asked bars and restaurants in many areas of the prefecture to close at 8 p.m.
An elder care home in downtown Tokyo was among the locations where vaccines were being administered Monday.
But Koike urged residents to buckle up and be cautious while vaccinations are in an early stage.
“We are still unarmed as we fight against the resurgence of the infections,” Koike said. “Please follow the guidelines.”
Health officials also will patrol bars and restaurants to ensure safety measures are observed, and testing will be increased at elderly care facilities.
The alert status had been raised a week ago for pats of western prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo, as well as Miyagi in the north. Fifteen cities in the six prefectures, including downtown Tokyo, are now under elevated virus measures.
Emergency
The non-binding emergency ended in the Tokyo area on March 21. Tokyo’s return to the alert status Monday underscores the difficulty of balancing anti-virus measures and the economy. Suga’s government has been criticized for being too slow in enacting anti-virus measures out of a reluctance to further damage the pandemic-hit economy.
Japan has managed the pandemic better than the United States and many countries in Europe, but not so well compared to other Asian countries and vaccinations have largely lagged behind due to limited supplies of the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only one approved in Japan which so far entirely relies on imports.
In Hachioji city in western Japan, a first group of elderly residents had their first shots Monday. But officials are expecting a slow start due to limited shipment at the beginning. It will be the end of June when Japan will have enough vaccine to cover the elderly population of 36 million, officials said.
Just over 1 million people in Japan have received the first of two vaccine doses, and the surge in cases may cause further cancellations of Olympic-related events.
Inoculations started in mid-February for medical workers, and the campaign will focus on older people through late June. The rest of the population is likely to have to wait until about July, making it almost impossible for Japan to reach so-called herd immunity before the Tokyo Olympics begin on July 23.
Meanwhile, India reported another record daily surge in coronavirus infections Monday to overtake Brazil as the second-worst hit country.
The 168,912 cases added in the last 24 hours pushed India’s total to 13.5 million, while Brazil has 13.4 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
India also reported 904 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 170,179, which is the fourth highest toll, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico.
India is experiencing its worst surge of the pandemic, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 cases per day. Hospitals across the country are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.
The latest surge also coincides with the shortage of vaccines in some Indian states, including western Maharashtra state, home to financial capital Mumbai, which is the worst hit state and has recorded nearly half of the country’s new infections in the past two weeks.
The hard-hit Philippine capital and four nearby provinces were placed under a lighter coronavirus lockdown Monday to avoid further damage to an already battered economy despite a continuing surge in infections and deaths. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Metropolitan Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, a region of more than 25 million people, would remain under lighter quarantine restrictions up to the end of April after a two-week hard lockdown. “Our emerging strategy is to increase our bed capacities instead of closing the economy,” said Roque, who spoke in a televised news briefing from a Manila hospital after contracting COVID-19 like many Cabinet members. The Philippines has long been a Southeast Asian coronavirus hotspot, with about 865,000 confirmed infections and nearly 15,000 deaths.
Alternative
New Zealand is requiring that all border workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus by the end of the month. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that beginning immediately, employers would need to consider alternative options for any of their employees who haven’t been vaccinated. That could mean those workers are redeployed to roles away from the border or fired. Ardern had previously set April as a deadline for vaccinating frontline workers but on Monday talked about it in stronger terms after three workers at a quarantine facility caught the virus. New Zealand has stamped out the spread of the virus within the community, so returning travelers who may have caught COVID-19 abroad are considered the biggest vulnerability.
Bhutan’s COVID-19 vaccination drive was fast from the start. As other countries rolled out their vaccination campaigns over months, Bhutan is nearly done just 16 days after it started. The tiny Himalayan kingdom has vaccinated nearly 93% of its adults. Its small population helped Bhutan move fast, but dedicated volunteers and the use of cold chain storage from earlier vaccination drives are credited as well. Bhutan distributed the shots to coincide with auspicious dates in Buddhist astrology and the recipient and provider of the first shot were women born in the Year of the Monkey.
The new mayor of South Korea’s capital demanded swift approval of coronavirus self-testing kits, saying that his city urgently needs more tools to fight the pandemic and keep struggling businesses open. Oh Se-hoon spoke Monday as Seoul and nearby metropolitan towns shut down hostess bars, night clubs and other high-risk entertainment venues to slow transmissions. Similar businesses were also shut down in the southern port city of Busan. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said 350 of the country’s 587 new cases were from the greater Seoul area. Kwon Jun-wook, director of South Korea’s National Health Institute, said earlier this month that authorities are reviewing whether to approve rapid home tests. But the review has proceeded slowly with some experts saying such tests would do more harm than good because they are less accurate than standard laboratory tests.