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Tokyo Logs Record 5,042 Cases As Infections Surge Amid Games

Published

3 years ago

August 5, 2021

Editor

Tokyo reported 5,042 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, its most since the pandemic began as infections surge in the Japanese capital hosting the Olympics.

Tokyo has been under a state of emergency since mid-July, and four other areas of the country have since been added.

But the measures, basically shorter opening hours and a ban on alcohol for restaurants and bars, are increasingly ignored by the public, which has become tired of restrictions.

“We need to tackle the situation now that we have a stronger sense of urgency,” Prime Minister Yosihide Suga told reporters, referring to Tokyo exceeding 5,000 new daily cases for the first time. “The infections are expanding at a pace we have never experienced before.”

Suga, who has been criticized for insisting on hosting the Olympics despite the coronavirus’s surge, says there is no evidence linking the increase in cases to the July 23-Aug. 8 Games.

He urged people to firmly stick to the emergency requests and stay at home during summer vacation.

The new cases brought Tokyo’s reported total to 236,138. The entire country registered more than 14,000 new cases on Wednesday, for a 970,460 total.

Alarmed by the pace of the spread, some experts have called for the state of emergency to be expanded nationwide.

Instead, Suga on Thursday announced a milder version of the emergency measures in eight prefectures, including Fukushima in the east and Kumamoto in the south, beginning Monday. The less-stringent measures allow prefectural heads to target specific towns but do not allow them to order business closures.

Suga also pledged to “prevent the further spread of the virus by firmly carrying out vaccinations.”

Experts say people are not cooperating because many feel less of a sense of urgency about the pandemic while the Olympics are going ahead and the government’s repeats of the same requests for people to stay at home.

Experts on a Tokyo metropolitan government panel cautioned that infections propelled by the more contagious delta variant have become “explosive” and could exceed 10,000 cases a day in two weeks.

Measures targeting business owners begin with requests and increase to orders, and violators can be fined, though this rarely happens. Those who comply can receive compensation, but thousands of eateries still stay open after the requested 8 p.m. closing time. Measures for the general public are only voluntary requests, including staying at home, wearing a mask outside and avoiding nonessential trips.

Japan has managed to keep its cases and deaths lower than much of the world, but testing is still insufficient and Tokyo’s positivity rate stands at 20%, indicating widespread infections. Japan has 8.9 new confirmed cases per 100,000, compared to 8.5 in Vietnam and 28.4 in the United States.

In Tokyo, nearly 17,000 patients with mild symptoms are currently isolating at home — more than a tenfold increase from a month ago — and more than 10,000 others are waiting for beds in hospitals or special hotels.

As hospital beds fill, Suga’s government introduced a new policy this week in which coronavirus patients with moderate symptoms will isolate at home instead of in hospitals, an attempt to save hospital beds almost exclusively for seriously ill patients.

Opposition lawmakers criticized Suga for not increasing hospital capacity sufficiently despite warnings about the delta variant. Coronavirus treatment in Japan is limited to public and university hospitals that have adequate facilities and expertise.

Dr. Masataka Inokuchi, the vice chair of the Tokyo Medical Association, said he hopes to establish a system that allows patients to isolate safely at home. “This system, however, will collapse if the number of patients at home keeps rising,” he said.

(AP)

News

JUST IN: Convicted Kidnap Kingpin Evans Re-arraigned, Opts For Plea Bargain

Published

44 mins ago

May 16, 2024

Editor

Convicted billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans, and his co-defendant Joseph Emeka, charged with murder and attempted kidnap have opted for plea bargain.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state lead counsel, Mr Yusuf Sule, informed the court about the plea bargain option on Thursday when the case was called for re-arraignment.

The case was called for re-arraignment before Justice Adenike Cokers of an Ikeja High Court.

NAN reports that Evans and his co-defendant were to be re-arraigned on an amended five-count charge bordering on murder, attempt to murder, conspiracy to commit felony, wit: kidnapping and attempt to murder.

Sule informed the court that the case was for re-arraignment but he was aware the defendants have applied for plea.

The prosecutor, however, said the plea bargain terms were being considered by the Attorney-General of Lagos State, Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN).

Details shortly…

News

JUST IN: Collapsed Roof Injures OAU Students During Lecture

Published

1 hour ago

May 16, 2024

Editor

A torrential rainfall of early Thursday morning, accompanied with a whirlwind has injured students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

The rain which started when the students were having a lecture, SER to be precise, in the Amphitheatre of the Oduduwa Hall, affected the ceiling of the Amphitheatre as it fell off and injured a few of the students.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adebayo Simeon Bamire led other principal officers to the Medical and Health Centre of the University, and ensured that the injured students were given adequate medical attention.

A release by the Public Relations Officer of the University, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju, stated that the Vice-Chancellor also followed two other students, whose cases demanded more medical attention to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), where the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Professor John Okeniyi, physically supervised the proceedings.

The Vice-Chancellor has, therefore, appealed for calm and urged students and staff to go about their academic and administrative activities without any form of untoward action.

Meanwhile, the management of the University, has sealed off the amphitheatre, the venue of the unfortunate incident, until further notice.

News

Edo Guber: Those Leaving PDP Are Disgruntled; We Need People With Value – Campaign DG

Published

2 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Editor

Matthew Iduoriyemkewen, the Director-General of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council for the September 21st governorship election in Edo State says persons who defected from the party to other parties are disgruntled.

Iduoriyemkewen made this assertion on Thursday in Benin during a familiarisation visit to the leadership and members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State council, where he solicited for a partnership and cooperation from media practitioners.

According to the DG, the PDP is interested in persons of value, adding that those that are in the party are assets to the party and that many persons are still coming.

“Most of the people moving out of the PDP have become disgruntled, and they feel they must have it all. I don’t know who gave them that kind of entitlement that PDP is theirs, and it must be theirs, and that when they need anything in PDP, and they don’t get it, nobody else can get it, and that the roof must be brought down,” he added.

He continued: “I can tell you that people we have in PDP are those that are asset to the party. Those that are assets to the party, we do not allow them to leave. More so, those that we are bringing into the party are those that will add value to the party. You will start seeing them very soon.”

Iduoriyemkewen, who said Edo needs persons with value and substance, stressed that his party candidates – Asue Ighodalo and Osarodion Ogie – are the rights persons Edo needs to move to an enviable heights.

Further speaking on activities of the campaign council, the DG said the party campaign would be issue-based, adding that how to move Edo forward is his party concern and not frivolous issues.

He said: “Our campaign would be issue-based. The campaign would be where we met Edo people and where we intend to take them to. Our campaign is going to be a realistic one, the steps we intend to take to solve the numerous challenges facing us.

“What we are going to be telling Edo people is the process of taking them from where we met them to where we are taking them to.”

Responding, the chairman, Edo NUJ, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, assured the DG of members of the council unbiased, apolitical stance as far as politics is concerned in the state.

The Edo NUJ chairman who said the union as a professional body frowned at fake news and unverified information, described the NUJ secretariat as a freedom ground where anyone can come to express his or mind on issues.