Kirk here with news about COVID-19. Kumamoto hit a new record today: 207 new cases in a single day. The image is from the following NHK page:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/coronavirus/data/

I heard on RKK that most of the new cases in Kumamoto are of the Delta strain. That report can be found here:

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a5c792c5434398b1f3e25bc07c75cacec588d04b

Speaking of the Delta strain, there was some important national news today that may come to affect Kumamoto. The following Japan Times article has the following headline:

First Japan case involving lambda COVID-19 variant linked to Olympics https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/08/13/national/lambda-olympic-case/

It’s beginning to look like warnings about holding the olympics in the middle of a pandemic were correct. Here’s a quote from another article:

“Some scientists have warned that the [Lambda] strain could be more transmissible than the Delta variant.”

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/lambda-variant/