Tokyo`s 7 point exit criteria from Covid19 lockdown

In this post we will be covering the following 3 topics :

1. Brief background of numeric trend on infections in Japan
2. Criteria put forward by the government for opening up Tokyo
3. In what phases they might open:

So, let’s start with a brief background on the current situation in Japan.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared the month-long state of emergency or soft lock-down on April 7 targeting Tokyo, which was the center of the outbreak, and the six prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo, and Fukuoka.

on April 16 decided to place all of Japan under a state of emergency to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

Before the 7th May deadline, the government said it is extending the soft lock-down till 31st May. But some prefectures already were getting to reopen due to a decrease in numbers of infections.

Two days back:
Due to the overall decrease on the national level, The government lifted a nationwide state of emergency for 39 of Japan’s 47 prefectures last Thursday. So 8 prefectures still remain to be under a state of emergency and Tokyo is one of them.

Even though Japan is witnessing an overall decrease in the number of infections one can say “Japan has avoided an explosive rise in infections” but over 16,700 cases and 690 deaths have been confirmed so far. Nearly a third of those cases have been reported in Tokyo.

At the time of declaring the state of emergency the number was hovering in 700/day as total in Japan, which slowly got under 100 recently.
The numbers in Tokyo have also seen a great fall and the numbers look very promising, especially starting from May. Tokyo touched the highest number of infections on 4/17 where the number was 207 people infected on that day. However larger compliance after the declaration of soft lockdown, measures on the ground, and people awareness has resulted a great fall at least in the last 10 days. The numbers are proof of this development. May began with a count of 164 to a sudden gradual decrease in the number of 9 on 15th May.

Now since the numbers are down, the government is mulling on lifting the state of emergency for the eight remaining prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, next week.

Tokyo reported 9 cases in a population of 14 million or 1.4 crores.

Now on the criteria:
Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike unveiled Friday a road map for the easing of measures aimed at overcoming the spread of the novel coronavirus in the capital

She announced that Tokyo would take into consideration the following 7 numeric indicators 3 for slowly opening up the Tokyo metropolitan area. These criteria are as follows:
1. On a weekly average, there must be fewer than 20 new infections a day,
2. with the percentage of untraceable cases below 50 percent. And In addition,
3. the weekly number of new infections must be lower than the previous week.

Apart from these three, other parameters like
4. number of seriously ill patients & the number of hospitalized patients,
5. the rate of people testing positive
6. the proportion of coronavirus positive results in polymerase chain reaction tests
7. the number of consultations on whether to see doctors over possible infections
will be also taken into consideration.

Koike said “If all first three indicators fall below the target, we’ll make a comprehensive assessment, taking into account other indicators as well as experts’ views. We’ll ease stay-home and business suspension requests.”

Phase wise opening :
Koike also said the easing will take place in phases after the central government lifts the state of emergency.

The central government has similarly set criteria for ending the state of emergency, under which the number of people infected with the virus would have to be fewer than 70 in one week in Tokyo, which has a population of roughly 14 million.

1. first allowing the resumption of public facilities such as museums and libraries.
2. Second They will be followed by theaters and other facilities with a low risk of people gathering and having close contact in closed settings.
3. And their, After that, all other facilities will resume operations, except those considered to be a high-risk environment.

But she warned that if any of the criteria exceed the set limit, she’ll issue what she calls a “Tokyo Alert” to urge people to exercise vigilance.

So it would be interesting to see how this announcement unfolds in the coming week. And if it works fine, can it offer some clue to metro cities like Tokyo which has a population more than 1 crores, have migrant population & have international travelers due to the presence of international airports.

So those were the points related to
1. Situation in Japan
2. Criteria for opening up Tokyo
3. Phases wise opening

It would great to know how you think about the situation in Japan which might be different from above.

Do let us know in the comments.

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All Covid19 information in Japan context is as follows:
https://indojapanpulse.com/category/health/covid19-in-japan

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