Originally Posted by
hailstorm
I don't know the official definition, but I doubt it has changed over the course of COVID reporting, so still wouldn't explain the discrepancy compared with previous reporting. Unless you've heard that all deaths in Japan are subject to posthumous COVID testing.
I would imagine that any person who is hospitalized will be tested, no matter if they present covid symptoms or not. That is what is done in many countries and often if the patient then tests positive and goes on to die that is recorded as a covid fatality even if the primary cause wasn't covid.
I'm not arguing that covid isn't an issue, what I'm saying is that the risk of hospitalization and death in a highly vaccinated society is very small and shouldn't drive how said society lives and how people interact with each other.