The number of new coronary pneumonia cases in Japan continued to rebound, with more than 110,000 cases the day before, reaching a record high and close to 110,000 yesterday. Among them, Tokyo increased by more than 10,000 cases for 6 consecutive days. Local health officials expect that 400,000 new cases will be added every day across the country at the beginning of next month. One of the reasons is the spread of the Omicron subtype variant BA.5, which is expected to replace other virus strains and become the local mainstream.
As of 6 p.m. local time on Sunday, Japan had reported 105,000 new coronavirus cases and 17 more deaths nationwide in the past day. Among them, Tokyo has 17,700 confirmed cases, followed by Osaka Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture with 10,800 and 8,147 cases.
Japan recorded more than 110,000 cases the day before yesterday. Kenhisa Tamura, Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters and former Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, pointed out that local cases recorded an astonishing increase during the transition of mainstream virus strains. It is expected that the number of confirmed cases in a single day this week will reach 200,000. The worst-case scenario is that it will increase to 400,000 cases early next month, and it is proposed to set up temporary medical facilities that can provide oxygen to patients. Shigeru Omi, chairman of the government’s sub-committee on epidemic prevention measures, said that in addition to the spread of BA.5, the reason for the rebound of the local epidemic was that the protection of vaccines began to decline.
Originally published on AM730 https://www.am730.com.hk/International/ba.5Spreading-Japan’s Epidemic Rebounds-It is estimated that 400,000 people will be diagnosed every day next month/329068