Daily US Times: Tokyo is passing every bad day and wait for the next day to become worse. The daily count of the new coronavirus cases has doubled in the past week. The number of infections was 40 in the last day of March. But according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the number turned to 97 on Thursday and on Friday, the city faced another 89 cases.
Kentaro Iwata, an infection control specialist from Kobe University, said if the current trend continues, the outlook is bleak. Mr Iwata has repeatedly warned that Japan isn’t doing enough to halt the spread of the virus.
He said “Japan needs to have the courage to change, when we are aware we are on the wrong path. We might see the next New York City in Tokyo.”
New York is the worst-hit zone in the United States and thought to be the epicenter of America’s coronavirus outbreak. There, the number of known cases is doubling every five days, and so far, more than 3,000 people have died in the state.
As of Friday, Japan has reported 74 deaths with 3,329 confirmed cases.
“The beginning of the burst of the infections in Spain, France, Italy, New York City — was really like Tokyo right now,” said Iwata.
He focused on the importance of more testing.
Tokyo has a population of 13.5 people, but it has tested fewer than 4,000 people as of Friday. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, just 39,466 people had been tested in this nation of 125 million.
South Korea- which seems successfully controlled the outbreak – had tested more than 440,000 people. The country has a much smaller population than Japan.
The Japanese government says its testing regime is adequate and suitably targeted to high-risk cases.
Japan’s Health Ministry told CNN in a statement: “Testing people with a low probability of novel coronavirus would be a waste of resources. We ask people with some symptoms to stay home for a period of time.”
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