Local media reported that the Paralympics will be held without spectators, as the number of people infected after the Olympics will exceed 18,000 per day
Last modified on Friday, September 3, 2021 12.06 EDT
Japanese health experts said the country is facing a coronavirus "catastrophe" and urged the government to take immediate action to curb the surge in infections.
When the warning was issued, local media reported that almost all events of the Paralympic Games that will open on August 24 will be banned from spectators.
Kyodo News quoted an unnamed official as saying that the government and Olympic organizers will make a formal decision next week. Media reports stated that sports fans will be denied entry to venues in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, although a small number of people can participate in events in Shizuoka Prefecture, which does not border Tokyo. According to reports, the organizers are considering inviting school children to the venue.
Japan is in the midst of an infection outbreak caused by a highly spread variant of Delta. According to Kyodo News, more than 18,000 cases were reported on Thursday, surpassing the record of 15,812 recorded a day earlier.
Tokyo is in a state of emergency for the capital's night economy, with 4,989 cases recorded on Thursday, the second highest number since the pandemic began. A record 1,654 cases of infection were reported in the western part of Osaka on the same day.
Health officials are also worried that the number of people with severe symptoms in Tokyo will exceed 200 for the first time, and warned that hospitals in the city are facing new pressures, with people in their 40s and 50s occupying many hospitals. Available beds.
In addition, more than 20,000 people with mild symptoms have been asked to stay at home, a policy that has led to quarantine deaths in the past.
"If infections continue to surge at the current rate, we will not be able to save the lives that could have been saved," said Shigeru Omi, the government's most senior virus adviser. "This has already happened. This situation is like a disaster."
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga continues to rule out any connection between the surge in cases and the Tokyo Olympics that ended last weekend.
Although athletes and other tourists do not seem to be spreading infections outside the Olympic "bubble", experts including Omi said that the festive atmosphere surrounding the Olympics has made people relax their vigilance.
The one-month state of emergency, requiring restaurants and bars in Tokyo not to serve alcoholic beverages and to close early, failed to stop the boom, because despite the threat of fines, more and more agencies choose to ignore this requirement.
Experts said that emergency measures should be expanded nationwide, adding that the flow of people in Tokyo needs to be reduced to half of the level in early July to control the latest surge in cases.
A few weeks ago, Omi called hosting the Olympics during the pandemic “abnormal”. He called for extensive testing and urged more medical institutions to support Covid-19 patients who were told to self-isolate. "Otherwise, we will see more tragic cases in China," he said.
Japan now vaccinates about 1 million people every day, but its launch is a few months later than the United Kingdom and other countries, and it has not made enough progress to check the spread of the Delta variant. Approximately 36% of the 126 million people are vaccinated.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Japan’s 7-day rolling average of new cases is 11.2 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 2.8 cases in India, 37 cases in the United States, and 41 cases in the United Kingdom.
Experts advising the Tokyo Metropolitan Government repeated Omi’s shocking description of the latest Covid-19 wave.
"The infection is raging and becoming uncontrollable," said Norio Ohmagari, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is almost a disaster. In this case, people have no choice but to protect their lives on their own."