Joe Tomei here with our first bulletin of the year from Lily McDermott & Chase Sutherland, Prefectural JET program advisors.

Hi Kumamoto,

We hope everyone has been doing well and had a chance to enjoy the snowfall we had.

As you all already know, last week, Prime Minister Suga declared a state of emergency for Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, giving limited emergency powers to the governors of those prefectures between 8 January until 7 February. He is expected to extend the state of emergency to Kansai as early as tomorrow.

The situation in Kumamoto Prefecture is not much better, with multiple clusters and persistently high numbers of new cases since our last update. Yesterday (11 January) Governor Kabashima announced that Kumamoto Prefecture has entered Stage 4 - Explosive Growth in Infections. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Stage 4 means that the health care systems are at risk of collapsing from an explosive rise in infections, with bed occupancy at 50 percent or higher. (https://corona.go.jp/news/pdf/jimurenraku_0811.pdf)

On Sunday (10 January), Mayor Onishi of Kumamoto City declared at a press conference on Sunday that Kumamoto City is now in a “Medical State of Emergency”, with 95.7% of hospital beds allocated for COVID-19 patients in Kumamoto City now filled.(https://www.city.kumamoto.jp/corona/hpkiji/pub/detail.aspx?c_id=5&id=26562、https://www.nishinippon.co.jp/item/n/680559/)

When the capacity of the whole prefecture is factored in, the use rate is 60% as of today. There are currently 252 hospitalised (https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/207/50626.html).

Below you’ll find a selection of updates that hopefully shed some more light on the situation in Kumamoto:

Kumamoto Prefecture extends request for businesses operating in central Kumamoto City to shorten hours of operation At the end of last year (30 December), Kumamoto Prefecture issued a request to food and drink establishments located in a central area of Kumamoto City to close after 10pm every day until 11 January. The Prefecture is extending this request for businesses to close early until 24 January.

Here is a description and map of the area to which the request to shorten business hours applies: https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/30/80991.html

Financial assistance is available for co-operating establishments (up to 40,000 yen/day) – information about this is available on the Prefectural Government’s website: https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/58/79647.html

Avoid all non-essential/non-urgent travel outside the Prefecture There are now 25 prefectures for which there are over 15.0 new cases per 100,000 in the preceding one-week period (4-10 January), including Kumamoto, which had 525 cases in the past week (30.0 cases/100k pop). As of 12 January, the prefecture is asking all residents to avoid all unnecessary and non-urgent travel across prefectural lines at this time.

https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/30/78301.html

Other requests from the Kumamoto City and Prefectural Governments In addition to the above measures, the following requests are in place from Kumamoto City and Kumamoto Prefecture. Please note your municipality may also have other specific requests that apply to residents/municipal employees.

Kumamoto Prefecture:

Avoid outings in central Kumamoto City after 10pm.
Avoid dining in groups of over 5.
Be thorough about the implementation of basic measures to prevent the spread of infections.

Kumamoto City:

People at high risk of developing serious cases such as the elderly or those with comorbidities, as well as their family members, should avoid unnecessary and non-urgent outings and contact with others.
Avoid all unnecessary and non-urgent outings after 10pm. -Increase telecommuting of rotation of shifts to reduce the number of employees in the office at any given time by 50% (excepting essential workers). Be particularly careful when moving to places such as break rooms or changing rooms.
Avoid dining with others except for those who you live with. https://www.city.kumamoto.jp/corona/hpkiji/pub/detail.aspx?c_id=5&id=26562

When will there be a State of Emergency for Kumamoto? The Governor of Kumamoto announced (11 January) that since Kumamoto Prefecture has entered “Stage 4”, we have reached the stage at which the prefecture should consider whether to ask the central government to declare a state of emergency for Kumamoto.

However, since there are extremely high numbers of new cases ongoing in neighbouring Fukuoka and Miyazaki, it is not likely that infections will decrease in Kumamoto if a state of emergency is declared for Kumamoto alone. As a result, Kumamoto is currently in negotiations with neighbouring prefectures in Kyushu about whether or not to request the national government to declare a state of emergency for all of Kyushu. https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20210111-OYT1T50154/ https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/0/81013.html

Kumamoto Prefecture is also adding a third hotel for convalescence, adding 90 additional rooms for a total of 230, and increasing the number of hospital beds by 13, for a total of 533. In addition, The prefecture is cooperating with medical institutions to facilitate transfers of patients across a wider area of the prefecture in order to decrease the burden on medical institutions in Kumamoto City.

If there are any developments regarding a State of Emergency for Kumamoto, and what it would entail, we will let everyone know.