Tokyo Finds 107 Virus Cases, Urges Caution Over Growing Outbreak
(Bloomberg) -- Tokyo found 107 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the most since early May, with authorities urging residents to take extra caution as infections continue to increase in the capital.
The figure is the highest since May 2, when the city was still in the midst of its state of emergency. Tokyo has reported more than 50 cases every day for the past week.
“We are at the stage where we must urge caution over the infection,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said at a hastily scheduled press conference. “Today's number is quite large.”
Koike called on residents to refrain from going to nighttime entertainment establishments such as host clubs, with 44% of the cases in the past week attributed largely to districts in Shinjuku and Ikebukuro that house thousands of such establishments. With close contact between clients and staff and little ventilation, these clubs are ideal venues for the virus to spread.
However, Koike did not make any requests for businesses to close their doors, instead calling on owners to ensure they are meeting guidelines to avoid the virus's spread. She added residents did not need to avoid businesses that were meeting these guidelines, and said there were no plans to close schools.
“We need the cooperation of residents and businesses in order to avoid a second wave,” Koike said. “Rather than asking for Tokyo-wide restrictions, we want to send a message to the specific businesses, areas and age groups where the infection is spreading.”
Koike unveiled a new system of monitoring criteria for the infection, designed to watch both the number of infections as well as the state of the medical system, on a four-point scale. The state of infections is judged to be the third-highest on the scale. Koike is running for a second term as Tokyo governor in a vote that is set to take place Sunday.
Despite the large number of cases, authorities were quick to draw a distinction between the current outbreak and the situation that triggered the state of emergency in April. Around 70% of the cases Thursday were from people in their 20s and 30s, who are less likely to require hospitalization. That matches what the city has found in the past week. The city has been conducting mass testing of host clubs, with experts at the Tokyo task force attributing the rise in cases to that focused effort.
As Tokyo Reopens Nightlife, Clubs Become Virus Danger Zones
However, the experts also cautioned that the number of infections whose path could not be confirmed was also increasing and said that left unchecked, these could increase six-fold in four weeks, to about 160 such cases a day.
A new cluster of infections was identified in the entertainment district in Ikebukuro, where more cases were found on Wednesday than in Shinjuku, including 11 from one host club alone, according to local media.
Worst-Case Scenario
Having tackled the initial surge in cases despite an inability to force a mandatory lockdown, Japan's response to the virus has been closely watched. With the economy in recession, authorities are eager to reopen businesses as much as possible and have stressed there are no plans to reiterate calls for restrictions on business openings and people's movement.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that while the cases were increasing, hospitalizations were decreasing with many of the cases impacting young people, and that the national government was monitoring both the status of the outbreak and the need to resume the economy.
“We're not currently in a situation where we need to immediately declare a state of emergency again,” Suga told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday. “It is possible that in a worst-case scenario another state of emergency might be issued, but in that case we would make an overall decision based on the number of infections, the pace of increase, the number from unknown sources and the status of the medical system.”
Authorities have stressed that the medical system in Tokyo is under no strain. The city has 280 hospitalizations due to the coronavirus as of Wednesday, with just 10 of them listed as serious cases in ICUs or on ventilators.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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