credit-google
Low immunity against Covid-19 and a growing population of frail elderly are driving a rise in coronavirus deaths in Japan, which has long upheld some of the strictest pandemic restrictions.
credit-google
Japan once claimed one of the lowest Covid-19 mortality rates, but the figure has been trending upward since late 2022.
credit-google
It reached an all-time high on January 20 this year, surpassing the UK, the US and South Korea, according to Harvard University's Covid database, Our World in Data.
credit-google
Japan was largely closed to foreign visitors from 2020 until mid-June last year. After restrictions are eased, infections may increase due to low COVID-19 immunity of the population
credit-google
Some school children ate in silence for more than two years because schools banned talking at lunchtime.
credit-google
19 fatalities are among elderly people with underlying medical conditions. This is in stark contrast to the early flurry of deaths that were caused by pneumonia and were often treated in intensive care.
credit-google
It is also difficult to prevent these deaths with treatment, says Hitoshi Oshitani, one of Japan's leading virologists, adding that Covid was only the trigger.
credit-google
With the emergence of immune-escaping variants and sub-variants and the decline of immunity, it is becoming more difficult to contain infections.
credit-google
Before the Omicron variant, Covid-19 deaths were mostly in cities like Tokyo and Osaka, but now there are cases nationwide
credit-google
credit-google