Originally Posted by
hailstorm
Stage 4 infection level prefectures (as of yesterday, in order of highest to lowest):
Okinawa, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Fukuoka, Ishikawa, Ibaraki (declared its own State of Emergency from today), Kyoto, Tochigi, Hyogo, Gunma, Fukushima, Hokkaido, Nara, Yamanashi, Tottori, Kumamoto, Wakayama, Fukui, Shiga, and Okayama
Stage 3 infection level prefectures (as of yesterday, in order of highest to lowest):
Shizuoka, Aichi, Kagawa, Saga, Kochi, Mie, Toyama, and Niigata
Okinawa further extends its lead over Tokyo in weekly infections per 100K of population, 179.15 to 167.82. Ten deaths nationwide yesterday, Tokyo leading the way with 7.
Tokyo now has over 14,000 COVID-19 patients recovering in their home, with a further 8400 in the "processing" state. Positivity rate is over 20% for the first time since the first wave.
Shizuoka gets promoted to Stage 4, giving Stage 4 prefectures a majority. Miyagi gets promoted to Stage 3, leaving Stage 3 prefectures one shy of a supermajority.
Okinawa (196.70) is now so far ahead that Tokyo (174.92) really isn't competition anymore. They lead the nation in every bad measurement that exists, with the notable exception of positivity rate. Tokyo now exceeds 20%, which leads me to believe that its actual infection numbers are far higher than test numbers would indicate, so maybe we're back in the post-factual era again, where statistics are more entertainment than a true measurement of the situation on the ground.
PM Suga's decision to limit hospitalization to only the most critical of patients and leaving everyone else to suffer at home has, as expected, received a lot of flak. What wasn't expected was that he would be receiving this flak from
his own party, with the Liberal Democratic Party demanding that the government scrap the policy. Apparently, he didn't discuss the plan either within his party or with the health advisory board before proceeding to announce it. Good luck with that election next month, guys...