On Wednesday, Tokyo recorded a daily record of 1,591 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 attention in the capital also reached the record of 113 people, according to the metropolitan government.
Toshio Nakagawa, head of the Medical Association of Japan, called the situation “extremely serious”, but stopped criticizing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for acting too slow to contain the latest outbreak, as some have suggested.
“Please take this virus seriously and don’t think it’s another flu,” Nakagawa said, warning that hospital care was spreading.
Japan has confirmed more than 250,000 cases, including more than 3,700 deaths.
Photo of KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP via Getty Images
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region:
– Thailand plans to expand trials to thousands of factories in a province next to Bangkok, as it reported 365 new cases across the country on Wednesday and a new death. Authorities have focused their efforts on migrant workers mainly from the marine industry in Samut Sakhon province, which has been the epicenter of the new outbreak. They are also trying to track down traveling players who travel extensively and are blamed for a second major point outside of Bangkok. Among the new cases, 250 are transmitted locally among Thais and 99 are migrant workers. The rest are arrivals abroad. This represents a total of 9,331, including 66 dead, being the last long-distance truck driver to work since Samut Sakhon. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, a spokesman for the COVID-19 coordination center, said there were 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 closure throughout Thailand, with strict travel restrictions in some areas. Schools, bars, bookmakers and other public meeting places have been closed, although shopping malls, department stores and restaurants remain open during 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 will have 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 since Sunday. The top provincial official said residents of areas classified as medium or high risk, mainly in Shijiazhuang and Xingtai cities, were being tested and banned from leaving. Neighborhoods classified as medium risk could only come out after showing a negative test for the virus. Classes are changed online and school dormitories are closed. Unique cases were also reported in Beijing and Lioaning and Heilongjiang provinces on Wednesday, where massive tests and limited closures have also been applied. The provincial capital of Liaoning, Shenyang, has ordered people from 16 districts to stay at home and anyone who wants to leave the city must submit a negative test obtained within 72 hours of departure, according to the state CCTV station. Suspicious of another wave of infections, China is urging migrant workers to stay in position during the Lunar New Year holidays next month. School classes are saying goodbye soon and tourists have said not to come to Beijing.
– The U.S. Navy in the Pacific has begun administering the initial COVID-19 vaccines to thousands of sailors. It comes a week after medical staff and strategic forces received their first shots at Yokosuka Naval Hospital in Japan, the seventh fleet said. The fleet includes about 20,000 sailors operating between 50 and 70 ships and submarines and 140 aircraft. Vaccines are part of a “phased and prioritized approach” adopted by the Department of Defense to “protect our people, maintain preparedness and support the national response of COVID-19,” the fleet said. Vaccines are being made voluntarily. Among those vaccinated were sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, the only aircraft carrier deployed forward in the fleet. The Navy has fought COVID-19, mostly in March aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where more than 1,200 troops were infected. After leaking a note from the ship’s captain warning of the threat, he was fired by the then Secretary of the Navy, who was fired amid controversy.
– Sri Lankan police have begun conducting mandatory tests on people who do not wear masks and maintain social distancing in public places, in the latest step to contain the coronavirus. Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said the evidence adds to legal action against those who break quarantine laws. 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 groups appeared, one focused on a garment factory and the other on a market, in and around Colombo. Confirmed cases from the two clusters reached 41,955 on Wednesday. Sri Lanka has reported a total of 45,728 cases with 217 deaths.
– Indonesia has registered 8,854 new cases of coronavirus, another daily record, as President Joko Widodo announced the start of a vaccination program. Widodo said in a televised speech that he will receive a shot on Jan. 13 to build confidence in the vaccine. “Next week, I will be the first to inoculate myself with the vaccine to prove that it is safe and halal as the vaccination program begins nationwide,” Widodo said. The state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma began distributing 3 million doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech across the nation of the archipelago, where more than 270 million people live. New cases on Wednesday bring the country’s confirmed total to 788,402, most in Southeast Asia and second in Asia alone with India’s 10.3 million confirmed cases. It has recorded 23,296 deaths. The government aims to vaccinate 70% of the population, or at least 182 million people, with the highest priority of health workers.