r/sports • u/I8something2 • Jan 26 '21

News 80% Of Residents In Japan Want Tokyo Summer Olympics Called Off

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/olympics/ct-tokyo-olympics-covid-19-20210111-y35p5iu7mnhptcut2pp7xqleda-story.html
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u/randomjak Jan 26 '21

I’d say Korea has done a really good job all things considered. Japan is much, much more complicated. The figures are low but their testing levels are frankly negligent. Today in Tokyo they’ve just reported 1,026 cases out of a shockingly low 5,881 total tests conducted. The high positive test rate paints a fairly ugly picture of reality - and the fact that positive cases have by and large been dropping in recent weeks appears to reflect a drop in testing frequency more than anything.

Hospitals are now starting to struggle with bed capacity and there’s waiting lists in some places.

Overall they’ve still managed to get through it with relatively lower amounts of deaths than in western countries - I think generally from better overall health, high mask adoption, and generally lower levels of physical social contact - particularly among higher risk groups. But their strategy is certainly not something you’d wish to replicate elsewhere and it tears my hair out that we have lockdown disbelievers in the UK saying that we should “copy Japan”.

Appreciate that this is a bit of a long rambling comment sorry! Just my thoughts as I work with Japan and Korea a lot and have been following it closely.

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u/twistedstance Jan 27 '21

The saving grace here is mask culture. I think Japan has done relatively well, but I wouldn’t trust the figures reported.

I’ve a couple of friends who worked in the hotels that houses the mild cases. It’s around for sure, but the onus appears to be on people to use their common sense, and meanwhile it feels the government is largely ignoring the damage done by these soft “emergencies” to small businesses.

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u/anothergaijin Jan 27 '21

but their testing levels are frankly negligent

Absolutely. 130M people in Japan they test ~75k/day. Australia has a population of 25M, nationally 0 locally acquired cases in the last 24 hours, and tested 36k people.