Japan rides calmer Covid-19 wave but new variant, resurgence of virus in Europe cause jitters
- Japan has some, but not all, answers, with experts pointing to factors like vaccination timing, mutation ‘errors’ and the ‘media effect’
- There is still worry that as temperatures dip and immunity wears off, infections will rise although it is hoped big spikes can be avoided
Japan’s low Covid-19 count in recent weeks – compared to the resurgence of cases in Europe and parts of Asia – has baffled its experts. On Tuesday, the day before Tokyo reported its five new cases, there were only 107 cases reported across the nation of 125 million.
Those figures are in stark contrast to the 25,992 reported on August 20, the peak of the fifth wave of the pandemic to hit Japan, and a seven-day average of 21,247.
Asked about the reasons for the steep dive, Kazuhiro Tateda, president of the Japan Association of Infectious Diseases and a member of the government’s advisory panel said: “We don’t know for sure.”
“Right now, the most likely explanation is that it is a combination of several factors, to greater or lesser degrees,” he said.
The high vaccination rate – after a lacklustre start – is a significant factor, Tateda said, with more than 196 million doses administered and nearly 78 per cent of the population double jabbed.
