An important update from Lily McDermott & Chase Sutherland, JET Program Prefectural Advisors
======= Dear Kumamoto,
This afternoon, Kumamoto Prefecture made a sudden announcement raising the Risk Level to Level 4, which is the second highest on Kumamoto’s independent risk level scale (the highest being Level 5). Usually the risk level announcements are made every Friday, but the large number of new cases announced today seems to have triggered the change. This is the first time in 9 weeks that the Risk Level has been elevated (the first time since the last state of emergency lifted). https://kumanichi.com/news/id200594
Since the change was made suddenly there are no new announcements yet about new measures the prefecture will be taking. Here is what we know so far:
43 new cases of COVID-19 in Kumamoto Prefecture today (19 April) Today, 43 new cases of COVID-19 were announced in Kumamoto Prefecture triggering the risk level announcement.
You can see from the case breakdown here on the Prefecture’s website that most of the cases outside of Kumamoto City are in the northern part of the prefecture: https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/uploaded/attachment/138574.pdf Here is the breakdown for Kumamoto Ctiy: https://www.city.kumamoto.jp/corona/common/UploadFileOutput.ashx?c_id=5&id=34783&set_doc=1&set_file_field=1
Among today’s bad news was the announcement of the death of a woman in her 80s in Nagasu. 75 people have died from COVID-19 in Kumamoto Prefecture since the start of the pandemic. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210419/k10012983821000.html?utm_int=news-social_contents_list-items_010
How many cases of the 43 announced today are of new variants are unknown. However, of the 11 new cases announced yesterday (18 April), 8 are suspected to be a variant form of COVID-19. Of the 8 suspected variant cases, 4 are associated with a cluster declared at Arao Municipal Hospital. https://www.nishinippon.co.jp/item/n/725587/
New clusters in Kumamoto At least three new clusters have been identified in the past few days, one at a private high school in Yamaga (Johoku Gakuen, https://kumanichi.com/news/id200604), one at Arao Municipal Hospital, and another at an elder-care facility in Higashi-ku Kumamoto City (https://kumanichi.com/news/id199491)
This marks a total of 47 officially-recognised clusters since the start of the pandemic, but only the second to affect a high school. So far 23 students have been confirmed to be positive for COVID-19. The high school in question has been closed until further notice. https://this.kiji.is/756780467553091584?c=92619697908483575
Travel subsidy for ryokan guests suspended Together with the announcement of the Risk Level being raised to Level 4, new reservations for the 5000 yen/night subsidy available for those staying at ryokan/hotels in Kumamoto Prefecture has been suspended. https://kumanichi.com/news/id200594
Request to avoid travel across prefectural lines to certain prefectures As we mentioned in previous updates, there is an ongoing request by the Kumamoto Prefectural Government for residents to avoid non-essential and non-urgent travel to other prefectures in which there are more than 15 new positive cases per 100,000 population in the preceeding week. The most recently updated list includes Osaka, Okinawa, Hyoko, Nara, Tokyo, Tokushima, Kyoto, Wakayama, Miyagi, Aichi, Ehime and Shiga prefectures. The full list can be confirmed here: https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/30/78301.html
“Special Measures” applied to parts of Tokyo, neighbouring prefectures At the beginning of this month we mentioned that Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi applied for and received designation as a region for which “Stronger Anti-Virus Measures” can apply. Since then, Tokyo Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Okinawa and Aichi Prefectures have received the designation and applied the measures to a restricted number of municipalities in their respective prefectures (Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Okinawa and Aichi Prefectures).
Despite these measures, yesterday in Osaka, 1220 new cases were announced, the highest so far. The Governor of Osaka has officially requested the national government to declare a State of Emergency for Osaka. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210419/k10012982971000.html?utm_int=all_side_ranking-access_001
Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko, while falling short of officially requesting the government for a state of emergency, stated that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is currently making arrangements to request one to be called. Asahi Shimbun reported that Tokyo Metropolitan Government may request a state of emergency as early as 22 April (https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASP4M5KBYP4MUTIL03F.html?iref=comtop_7_01)
