Tokyo reported a daily record of 1,591 on Wednesday coronavirus cases where the national government is preparing to declare a state of emergency this week to deal with a new wave of infections. Those in need of critical care in the capital have also reached a record 113, according to the metropolitan government.
Toshio Nakagawa, head of the Japan Medical Association, called the situation “extremely serious”, but stopped criticizing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for acting too slowly to contain the latest outbreak, as some have suggested.
“Please take this virus seriously and don’t think it’s just another flu,” Nakagawa said, warning that hospital care is spreading.
Japan has confirmed more than 250,000 cases, including more than 3,700 deaths.
Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP via Getty Images
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region:
– Thailand plans to extend tests to thousands of factories in a province near Bangkok, as it reported 365 new cases across the country on Wednesday and another death. Authorities have focused their efforts on migrant workers, especially in the seafood industry in Samut Sakhon province, which was the epicenter of the new outbreak. It is also trying to track down traveling players who are traveling on a large scale and are blamed for a second major hotspot outside of Bangkok. Of the new cases, 250 are transmitted locally among Thais and 99 are migrant workers. The rest are arrivals abroad. This leads to 9,331, including 66 deaths – the latest long-distance truck driver working at Samut Sakhon. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, a spokesman for the COVID-19 coordination center, said there are plans to test workers at more than 10,000 factories in Samut Sakhon, 100 of which have more than 500 employees each. The government has ordered a partial blockade around Thailand, with strict travel restrictions in some areas. Schools, bars, gambling halls and other public gatherings have been closed, although malls, shops and restaurants remain open for reduced hours.
– China’s Hebei is implementing stricter control measures following a further increase in coronavirus cases in the province adjacent to the capital Beijing, which is set to host events for next year’s Winter Olympics. The National Health Commission reported another 20 cases in Hebei on Wednesday, bringing the province’s total to 39 on Sunday. The senior provincial official said residents of areas classified as medium or high risk, mainly in Shijiazhuang and Xingtai, have been tested and banned from leaving. Those in neighborhoods classified as medium risk could leave only after showing a negative test for the virus. Courses change online and school dormitories are closed. Also on Wednesday, individual cases were reported in Beijing and Lioaning and Heilongjiang provinces, where mass tests and limited blockades were also applied. Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, has ordered people from 16 districts to stay home and anyone wishing to leave the city must take a negative test within 72 hours of departure, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Concerned about another wave of infections, China is urging migrant workers to stay during the monthly New Year holidays next month. School classes are dismissed early and tourists were told not to come to Beijing.
– The US Pacific Navy has started administering the initial COVID-19 vaccinations to thousands of sailors. It comes a week after medical personnel and strategic forces received initial fire at Yokosuka Naval Hospital in Japan, the 7th Fleet said. The fleet includes about 20,000 sailors operating 50-70 ships and submarines and 140 aircraft. Vaccinations are part of a “priority, step-by-step approach” adopted by the Department of Defense to “protect our people, maintain our training and support the national response to COVID-19,” the fleet said. Vaccinations are provided voluntarily. Among those vaccinated were sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, the only aircraft carrier in the fleet deployed before. The Navy fought COVID-19, especially in March aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where more than 1,200 personnel were infected. After a note was leaked from the ship’s captain warning of the threat, he was fired by the then Secretary of the Navy, who himself was fired amid controversy.
– Sri Lankan police have started conducting mandatory tests on people who fail to wear masks and maintain social distance in public places, in the latest movement to contain coronavirus. Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said the tests were in addition to legal action against quarantine violators. On Tuesday, police arrested 1,060 people in Colombo and the suburbs, and 14 of them tested positive for the virus. A new outbreak occurred in October, when two clusters – one centered on a garment factory and the other on a fish market – appeared in and around the city of Colombo. The confirmed cases in the two clusters reached 41,955 by Wednesday. Sri Lanka reported a total of 45,728 cases with 217 deaths.
– Indonesia has registered 8,854 new cases of coronavirus, another daily record, while President Joko Widodo announced the start of a vaccination program. Widodo said in a televised speech that he would receive a blow on January 13 to build confidence in the vaccine. “Next week, I will be the first to be inoculated with the vaccine to show that it is safe and halal as the vaccination program begins nationwide,” Widodo said. The state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma has begun distributing 3 million doses of vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech across the archipelago nation, hosting more than 270 million people. Wednesday’s new cases bring the country’s confirmed total to 788,402, the highest in Southeast Asia and second in Asia, with just 10.3 million confirmed cases in India. It recorded 23,296 deaths. The government aims to vaccinate 70% of the population, or at least 182 million people, with health personnel given the highest priority.