Hi Joe Tomei here with another update from the JET Prefectural advisors, Lily McDermott and Chase Sutherland

———- Dear Kumamoto,

We hope everyone’s Monday is off to a good start. Here are some updates regarding the situation in Kumamoto and Japan:

Kumamoto Risk Level raised to Level 4 Kumamoto Prefecture’s independent Risk Level was raised to Level 4 on 1 December, the second highest level on the 6-stage scale (0 being the lowest and 5 the highest). This is the first time Level 4 has been announced since the new scale was announced on 28 October. https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/uploaded/attachment/122587.pdf

We have attached the translation of the new Risk Levels to this email if you would like to reference them again.

The following points were mentioned in materials released to the press by Kumamoto prefecture:

  • The number of cases for which the route of infection is unknown has increased to 28, making up 47.5% of cases (up from 39.1%) in the previous 1-week period. -Nationwide, there are regularly over 2000 cases per day. Although until relatively recently the number of cases in Kyushu has not seen such a dramatic increase, unfortunately the number of new cases is increasing and as a result increased vigilance is necessary. -If residents have any symptoms such as a fever, the prefecture asks for them to stay home from work and contact their regular physician or the fever hotline as soon as possible.

Since the risk-level increase, the Prefecture has announced some additional requests, as well as explained some of the new measures that are being implemented. The whole document is rather lengthy (you can see it here: https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/uploaded/attachment/122522.pdf) but if you don’t want to read all of it you can read on for some of the highlights.

New request from Kumamoto Prefecture concerning domestic travel Ever since the general request to avoid any travel to other prefectures was lifted on 23 September, the prefecture issued a general request to all residents to avoid traveling to prefectures in which COVID-19 is spreading, but did not specify which particular prefectures that applied to.

In light of the Risk Level being raised to Level 4, the prefecture is issuing the following request to residents concerning avoiding domestic travel:

Please avoid travel to prefectures in which the number of new cases per 100,000 population over a 1-week period is 15 or higher. If you must travel for unavoidable reasons, the prefecture requests residents to thoroughly implement measures to prevent the spread of infection and to avoid the 3 Cs at their destination.

The prefecture will compile a list of the case totals and per 100,000 population for all 47 prefectures and publish it on the prefectural website for residents to refer to.

For the 1-week period between 25 November and 1 December, 5 prefectures exceeded the 15 cases per 100,000 cutoff given by Kumamoto Prefecture. They are as follows:

Hokkaido - 1,500 cases (28.6 per 100,000) Osaka - 2,451 cases (27.8 per 100,000) Tokyo - 3,114 cases (22.4 per 100,000) Okinawa - 322 cases (22.2 per 100,000) Aichi - 1,198 (15.9 per 100,000)

(For comparison the number for Kumamoto is 45 cases, 2.6 per 100,000)

Furthermore, the Human Resources Division of Kumamoto Prefecture has issued a request to prefectural employees to avoid business trips and personal travel to these prefectures. The corresponding division of your own contracting organisation may have issued a similar request for their employees that applies to JETs also.

Other new measures implemented by Kumamoto Prefecture There are some new announcements regarding measures the prefecture is taking to address the infection situation.

  • 609 different medical institutions have now been designated as able to treat and test patients, enabling a quicker response to cases in which individuals present with symptoms such as a fever.
  • 15 different patient information centres have been established in 15 different regions of the prefecture in order to be able to refer people to one of the 609 institutions in the case they have symptoms.
  • In addition to PCR tests, implementation of simplified antigen test kits will allow a daily testing capacity of approximately 8,600/day.
  • The number of hospital beds designated for coronavirus patients has been increased to 400, and the number of hotel rooms for patients with mild symptoms has increased to 1,430.
  • 31 medical institutions have been designated as “focal medical facilities” in order to quickly admit patients who test positive.

National and prefectural governments: ‘Take “concentrated” measures over the first two weeks of December’ Over the end of year holidays, it can be anticipated that the number of gatherings will increase. The government is conducting a public awareness campaign with various bits of advice concerning how the public should go about conducting these gatherings.

Most of the guidelines will sound familiar (for example, avoiding the 3 Cs, wearing a mask when not eating, not attending if feeling unwell, visiting places with good ventilation). In addition, the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare requests that if you are going to consume alcohol with others, please (1) do it in small numbers over a short period of time, (2) drink with people who you are usually together with (3) avoid heavy drinking and visiting more than one establishment in one outing.

A similar message regarding this has been uploaded to the website of the Kumamoto Support Center for Foreign Residents, so you can read about it here in English: http://www.kuma-koku.jp/support-center/page230.html http://www.kuma-koku.jp/support-center/page234.html