Nothing to sneeze at
The skyrocketing increase in new infections in Japan may be parallel with what’s happening in China which its government seemed determined to keep hidden from the world.
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Daily TribuneThe skyrocketing increase in new infections in Japan may be parallel with what’s happening in China which its government seemed determined to keep hidden from the world.
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The Christmas 2022 celebrations we've had represent the first time since 2019 that Filipinos got to enjoy the relative easing of Covid-19 restrictions as we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.
Nonetheless, at malls teeming with shoppers, churches during Mass, and in many other places of convergence like public transport terminals, most Pinoys still keep their masks on even if their wearing has been made optional by the government.
We can expect the same in the coming New Year's Eve revelries on Saturday with more people going to parties, upbeat about the coming 2023 as economies across the globe pick up under the new normal of hybrid if not full in-person work.
For those fully vaccinated and, more so, those with booster shots against Covid-19, the virus is already being seen more like the common cold and not the deadly scourge that has killed over a million people worldwide.
But has the world licked Covid and its many mutations since it was first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019?
Have populations already received from the many vaccines developed by big pharmaceutical firms ironclad protection not from contracting the virus per se, but from getting deathly sick because of it?
Filipinos having seemingly acquired the habit of mask-wearing and social distancing, whenever possible, may be the reason why the Department of Health has not expressed grave concerns about Filipinos going to that Eraserheads concert and celebrating Christmas en masse at the Rizal Park, for example.
Elsewhere in the world, Covid seems to be making a vicious comeback with China censoring the statement of a senior health official that in one city alone, about half a million new Covid cases are being logged each day.
The numbers coming out of Japan are also sobering and may force governments to rethink their intention to fully open their borders and economies in the coming year.
Tokyo on Friday reported 371 Covid-related deaths across Japan for that day, the highest daily fatality figure since the pandemic started. Japan, according to its health authorities, is experiencing its eighth wave of infections.
The death toll in the previous high was 347 recorded on 2 September during the seventh wave. Since 1 January 2022, 36,600 people had died from Covid in Japan, bringing the daily average to over 100 dead this year.
If the 371 who died from Covid in Japan on Friday was shocking, consider that on the same day, the country registered 174,079 new infections, up by 20,000 from the same day the previous week.
Japanese authorities said there were 24 deaths in Tokyo, 25 in Hokkaido, and 28 in Kanagawa Prefecture, near the capital. New cases numbered 17,332 in Tokyo, 10,938 in the Aichi Prefecture, and 10,537 in Osaka Prefecture.
The skyrocketing increase in new infections in Japan may be parallel with what's happening in China which its government seemed determined to keep hidden from the world. Over the weekend, the United States called on Beijing to be more transparent with its Covid-19 numbers.
After the celebrations have died down, governments of the world, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s administration, must reassess Covid-19 intervention policies, especially when it comes to reinvigorating our seemingly stalled vaccination program.
We cannot wait for the protection provided by the vaccines to wane off before acting. We should boost as many people as possible and seriously consider that proposal to bring in bivalent Covid vaccines.
Covid-19 is nothing to sneeze at even to this day.
