Explained: State of Emergency on 7 cities

Episode 2 of the Quirky Japanese Podcast podcast, hosted by Yuto Ito, titled "Explained: State of Emergency on 7 cities" was published on April 8, 2020 and runs 10 minutes.

April 8, 2020 ·10m · Quirky Japanese Podcast

Summary

Japanese PM called the State of Emergency yesterday at 7pm. That when everyone in Japan sort of facing TV, so he chose that time. During an hour of special broadcasting, he spoke more than 30 minutes, so slowly, on why and how they tackle COVID-19 and reporters threw questions. Last night, Japan, finally, declared the state of emergency on Tokyo, Osaka Fukuoka and the other four prefectures due to the impact of coronavirus. PM Abe urged residents to stay home to protect their lives and announced the “significant” reduction of social interactions. “In two weeks, the numbers of increase peak and the numbers will be decreased if the contacts between person to person was cut at least 70-80%,” he said. To prevent the spreads of COVID-19, the restrictions on people’s mobility and social interaction is inevitable as countries around the world followed the WHO’s health advice. However, he said there is no necessary to shut borders. “This emergency declaration is not like lockdown in foreign countries. That is clear. From now on, public transportation such as train and bus will run. Roads will not be closed that is unnecessary to do according to the specialists” Japan Times reported “Even under a state of emergency, prefectural governors do not have the legal power to enforce extremely restrictive actions and cannot lock down cities like in the U.S. or Europe” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've been telling my friends and family not going out. Although the restrictions on people’s mobility and social interactions are very very important, the government took the situation lightly. So, this underestimated decision would costs lives. Though the government have no intention of lockdown, the situation in Japan is similar to stage 1 of lockdown in Victoria. Remember, we were allowed to do anything during the strong warning from the premier. Japan Times reported, “The declaration authorises the governors in the seven prefectures to request that residents stay home except for essential tasks, such as grocery shopping and seeking medical care.” We’ll see how strict the Japanese are in the rules. People are allowed to go out for two essentials tasks: grocery shopping and seeking medical care. According to the medical chief who joined the press conference with the PM, the other prefectures did not leach to the emergency. That is why they are excluded. The number of patients was doubled over a week, 3,906 cases were confirmed on Tuesday. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today, Tokyo confirmed more than 140 people in a day which recorded the highest number per day since the outbreak. Most of the people wear masks, but as Norman Swan, the host of the Health Report said masks help not to spread the virus from the person whose virus is asymptomatic, that is not the silver bullet for the virus. One of the research company is about to start the vaccine on human. So, there is a debate that one side, a vaccine will save lives, but on the other side, the pandemic will probably have peaked and declined before a vaccine is available. It is true to say, it takes a while before the arrival, so why not we try our best now? The best things you can do is, to wash your hands at least four times a day, reduce the number of shopping, work from home. As WHO advises, stay home.

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