Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and COVID-19 expert Shigeru Omi talking about the COVID-19 pandemic during the New Year holiday. (Image via Japan Today)

5 new COVID-19 cases emerge, Suga: Let's celebrate a quiet New Year

On Friday, the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, wanted the country to celebrate a quiet New Year. In other words, Suga wanted all Japanese people to refrain from gathering in order to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), breaking records on a daily basis.

Speaking on a news conference in Tokyo accompanied by the COVID-19 expert, Shigeru Omi, Suga urged that if the Japanese people keep on going out to prevent furthering the widespread of the disease. Moreover, Suga also released a package of 270 billion yen for hospitals in treating COVID-19 patients. Currently, the hospitals are pressed due to the spike of COVID-19 cases in Hokkaido to metropolitan cities such as Tokyo & Osaka.

Since the New Year is a long holiday for the Japanese where they travel back to their hometowns to spend time with their family and friends, Omi wanted the Japanese people to act on the health crisis. The expert stated that it is hard to flatten the curve after the holiday.

On late Friday, the Health Minister, Norihisa Tamura, reported the first five cases of the new variant of COVID-19 tested in passengers coming from the United Kingdom. Reportedly, the new COVID-19 variant, called B117, spreads 70 percent faster than the ordinary COVID-19 virus. Having met and talked with the PM, Tamura quoted that Suga wanted airports to tighten its quarantine measures, especially those returning from the U.K. Due to the B117, Japan has been refusing flights from the U.K with the exception for the Japanese nationals and holders of the residence permit.

Japan had a deal with the Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford, and Moderna to buy 290 million dosages of COVID-19 vaccine, enough for 145 million people.

Besides the frontline healthcare workers and people with underlying conditions, the Health Ministry also prioritized elderly people, aged 65 and beyond, to be vaccinated against COVID-19. For people with underlying conditions, the Health Ministry specified priority for the people suffering from the chronic heart disease, respiratory disease, and kidney disease.

Source: https://bit.ly/2KTgDyH