Over 70% Fully Vaccinated In Japan Among Top 3 In G
KYODO NEWS – Oct 26, 2021 – 18:45 | All, Japan, Coronavirus
Over 70 percent of Japan’s population has been fully inoculated against COVID-19, government data showed Tuesday, ranking the country among the top three in the Group of Seven nations after an initially slow vaccine rollout.
Of Japan’s population of 125 million, 70.1 percent had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the government.
A person is given an AstraZeneca vaccine shot against COVID-19 in Osaka on Aug. 23, 2021.
The inoculation rate is now almost on par with Italy, which is second only to Canada, where 72.65 percent of the total population had been vaccinated as of Oct. 16.
G-7 members the United States and Britain, which were initially far ahead of Japan in inoculating their populations, have seen their vaccination rates slow after reaching 60 percent.
Among people aged 65 and over in Japan, 90.4 percent had been fully vaccinated as of Monday, compared with 60.8 percent of people in their 30s, 57.0 percent in their 20s and 47.7 percent of those aged between 12 and 19.
A total of 185.98 million doses have been administered in the country, with 76.7 percent of the population having received at least one dose, the data showed.
The Government Recommends That People Get Vaccinated Because The Benefits Of Vaccination Are Greater Than The Risk Of Side Reactions
- Vaccination may result in the body reacting to the vaccine through local reactions that include pain in the area where the shot was administered and systemic reactions such as fever or headaches. These reactions are more frequent after the second dose than the first dose and the older the recipient is, the less frequently they occur. It is best to be vaccinated when your physical condition is essentially fine and to take things easy after receiving the vaccine.
- People with a history of severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, will be observed for longer than usual after the injection is given, and should anaphylaxis occur, necessary treatment will be provided by medical workers.
- The Government recommends that people get vaccinated because at present, serious safety concerns have not arisen and the benefits of taking the vaccine outweigh the drawbacks of side reactions.
Japan: How Many Tests Are Performed Each Day
What does the data on deaths and cases tell us about the mortality risk of COVID-19?
To understand the risks and respond appropriately we would also want to know the mortality risk of COVID-19 the likelihood that someone who is infected with the disease will die from it.
We look into this question in more detail on our page about the mortality risk of COVID-19, where we explain that this requires us to know or estimate the number of total cases and the final number of deaths for a given infected population. Because these are not known, we discuss what the current data can and can not tell us about the risk of death.
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The Entire Government Is Working In An All
- The Government will make all-out efforts to provide local governments with enough vaccine doses by the end of June to enable all elderly persons desiring it to receive their second dose, with the end of July in mind. We will also begin broadly inoculating the general public, including people with underlying health conditions, starting from those municipalities that have prospects for finishing vaccinations of the elderly.
Opinion: Why Is Japan Failing So Badly On Vaccinations
William Pesek is a Tokyo-based writer and author of Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japans Lost Decades.
Japan, which is still planning to host the Tokyo Olympics this July, finds itself in a truly awkward position trailing Colombia, Latvia and Turkey in the global vaccination race.
A nation famed for first-world logistical competence is running dead last among the 37 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members, the club of wealthy nations. This dismal performance isnt just imperiling the Olympics or the worlds third-biggest economy. Its challenging basic notions about whether Japan can change at all.
Japans 1.6 percent rate of vaccination puts it on par with Myanmar, a failed state not exactly a ringing endorsement of Tokyos shambolic rollout, quips longtime Tokyo resident Jeff Kingston, head of Asia studies at Temple Universitys local campus. This is an own goal of epic proportions.
There are many explanations for why Japan has been so glacial about inoculating its population . One is that Prime Minister Yoshihide Sugas Liberal Democratic Party was betting on domestic drugmakers to come up with a homegrown vaccine. When none materialized, Tokyo joined the long line of other nations competing to source vaccines from outside suppliers.
Now Japan faces its very worst fear: flopping on the world stage.
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Japan Passes 50% Vaccination Rate May Ease Limits In Nov
TOKYO Japans government says more than 50% of the population has been fully vaccinated.
Japans vaccine rollouts began in mid-February, months behind many wealthy countries due to its lengthy clinical testing requirement and approval process. Inoculations for elderly patients, which started in April, were also slowed by supply shortages of imported vaccines, but the pace picked up in late May and has since achieved 1 million doses per day.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of COVID-19 measures, told NHK public televisions weekly talk show Sunday that about 60% of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of September, on par with current levels in Europe.
The government is studying a roadmap for easing restrictions around November when a large majority of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated. That would allow fully vaccinated people and those who test negative to travel, gather for parties or attend mass events.
Debate Over Japans Extra Step
In 2016, a team of Japanese Health Ministry advisers warned that Japan was unprepared if a pandemic broke out. Their report described Japans pharmaceutical industry as uncompetitive, questioned if it could efficiently develop a vaccine for Japanese citizens and noted the risk of trying to secure vaccines abroad in a time of crisis.
Shibuya, one of the authors of the report, likened Japans pharmaceutical industry to its financial industry before a 1991 crash. So many companies, a lack of competitiveness, obviously heavily subsidized, a lack of global scale, he said.
The assessment of Shibuya and his colleagues appears prescient five years later. Japanese pharmaceutical companies lacked the resources and funding to compete with their international rivals, forcing the country to obtain COVID-19 vaccines abroad rather than develop its own.
When Japan finally secured enough Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to cover its population, the government faced a crucial decision. Did it make more sense to rush the vaccine to the public with COVID-19 cases on the rise and the Olympics looming in July? Or was it more prudent to stick to typical protocol and do clinical trials in Japan in hopes of proving to a notoriously wary population that the foreign-made vaccines were safe?
The government decided to conduct an additional clinical trial to counter the anti-vaccine movement, media, and opposition parties, Sakamoto said. Therefore, the start of the vaccination was delayed by 2-3 months.
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Japan: From Vaccine Hesitancy To Vaccine Success
It seems hard to believe now, but at the beginning of June, I was seriously contemplating flying to the United States to get a Covid vaccine.
With just seven weeks to go until the Olympics, only 3.5% of Japan’s population had been fully vaccinated. While friends in the UK were merrily posting vaccine selfies on social media, here in the capital Tokyo, we were joking we might not see a needle till Christmas.
With the Olympics about to open, it seemed astonishing the Japanese government had bungled the vaccine rollout so badly.
Six months later, it couldn’t be more different.
Not only has Japan succeeded in overcoming the early chaos, it’s managed to get a higher percentage of its population vaccinated than almost anywhere else on Earth. Some 76% of Japanese are now fully immunised.
The Olympics was key.
Remember, back in July, the large street protests demanding the games be cancelled? There was real anger and fear the games would turn in to a super-spreader event.
Horrified that their big event might be ruined, the politicians finally got their act together.
The army was called in and by the beginning of July, a million shots were being given each day.
But it’s not just the logistical turnaround that’s been a surprise it’s how willing Japanese people have been to get the vaccines. In the over-80 age group, 95% have now had their shots – no sign of vaccine hesitancy there.
But that is not what was predicted.
Cambodia Leads Asia For Highest Percentage Of Fully
Cambodia is topping the list in Asia for the country with the highest percentage of fully-vaccinated individuals in its population. The countrys 16 million-plus population has seen around 82% receiving at least 2 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine since November 3, according to ourworldindata.org.
The percentage of those fully-vaccinated has beat out Singapore, Brunei and South Korea by 1%. And, it has beat out Japan and Malaysia by 2%. The same website has said that Thailand and Vietnam had immunised 61% and 60% respectively. Indonesia and Laos were the lowest ranked at 44% each. Globally, Cambodia ranks number 5, which is quite impressive by any means. The UAE, Portugal, Cuba and Chile beat out Cambodia for the top 4 rankings.
Reuters Coronavirus Tracker, however, says Cambodias vaccination rate is even higher than that of ourworldindata.org. Reuters says Cambodia has actually fully-vaccinated 84.4% of its population. Now, as the Kingdom rolls out vaccines to children aged 3 and 4 in the near future, the governments plan of having 91% of the country fully-inoculated against Covid-19, is well on its way to materialising.
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Almost All Covid Patients In Intensive Care Are Unvaccinated Doctors Claim
The head of the Oxford jab programme says almost every Covid-19 patient in intensive care units has not been vaccinated.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard warned that those who have not had a jab are now virtually the only ones struggling to breathe in the UK.
His intervention comes with various hospital workers expressing similar concerns with some saying their patience is wearing thin with anti-vaxxers and the amount of resources the NHS is spending on people who have not been jabbed.
In a Guardian piece jointly authored Oxford University infectious diseases professor Brian Angus, Sir Andrew wrote: This ongoing horror , which is taking place across ICUs in Britain, is now largely restricted to unvaccinated people.
Generally, Covid-19 is no longer a disease of the vaccinated vaccines tend to limit its suffocating affliction, with a few exceptions.
The UK has now administered almost 113 million doses but uptake of first and second jabs has dropped dramatically, with daily totals for first jabs barely passing 35,000 in nearly two weeks.
While more than 88% of people aged 12 and over have now had a first dose, that leaves millions unprotected and potentially at risk of serious illness and death.
Nearly 81% of people have had a second jab and 27% a booster.
Earlier this month, an anaesthetist told Metro.co.uk about working in intensive care amid the strain from Covid, which he said had left the NHS is teetering on its edge.
Japan: Global Vaccinations In Comparison: Which Countries Are Vaccinating Most Rapidly
Why is data on testing important?
No country knows the total number of people infected with COVID-19. All we know is the infection status of those who have been tested. All those who have a lab-confirmed infection are counted as confirmed cases.
This means that the counts of confirmed cases depend on how much a country actually tests. Without testing there is no data.
Testing is our window onto the pandemic and how it is spreading. Without data on who is infected by the virus we have no way of understanding the pandemic. Without this data we cannot know which countries are doing well, and which are just underreporting cases and deaths.
To interpret any data on confirmed cases we need to know how much testing for COVID-19 the country actually does.
The Our World in Data COVID-19 Testing dataset
Because testing is so very crucial to understanding the spread of the pandemic and responding appropriately, we have focused our efforts on building a global dataset on COVID-19 testing.
- The testing dataset is updated around twice a week. The latest version is always available on our page on COVID-19 testing.
- And as with all our work, it is freely accessible for everyone. The data can be downloaded here on GitHub.
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Vaccines Masks Japan Puzzling Over Sudden Virus Success
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Oct. 1 file photo, people walk through the famed Kabukicho entertainment district of Tokyo on the first night of the governments lifting of a coronavirus state of emergency.
Almost overnight, Japan has become a stunning, and somewhat mysterious, coronavirus success story.
Daily new COVID-19 cases have plummeted from a mid-August peak of nearly 6,000 in Tokyo, with caseloads in the densely populated capital now routinely below 100, an 11-month low.
The bars are packed, the trains are crowded, and the mood is celebratory, despite a general bafflement over what, exactly, is behind the sharp drop.
Japan, unlike other places in Europe and Asia, has never had anything close to a lockdown, just a series of relatively toothless states of emergency.
Some possible factors in Japans success include a belated but remarkably rapid vaccination campaign, an emptying out of many nightlife areas as fears spread during the recent surge in cases, a widespread practice, well before the pandemic, of wearing masks and bad weather in late August that kept people home.
But with vaccine efficacy gradually waning and winter approaching, experts worry that without knowing what exactly why cases have dropped so drastically, Japan could face another wave like this summer, when hospitals overflowed with serious cases and deaths soared–though the numbers were lower than pre-vaccination levels.
So why the drop?
He did not elaborate on details.
Olympics ‘positive’ For Japan Retail
Japan is just weeks away from hosting the Summer Olympics, but Tokyo prefecture remains under priority measures intended to limit the spread of the virus. Some aspects of the games remain undecided. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that they could be held without spectators, according to local news agency Kyodo News.
Still, EY’s Kobayashi said the Olympics are likely to have a “positive impact” on Japan’s retail landscape even if spectators are barred from the games.
In the short term, she said products such as high-definition TVs could see a spike in demand. Meanwhile, a successfully executed Olympics will “increase the attractiveness of Japan” as an international travel destination in the long-run, she said.
“It’s great news for inbound tourism and consumption,” said Kobayashi.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
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Japan: Biweekly Deaths: Where Are Confirmed Deaths Increasing Or Falling
Why is it useful to look at biweekly changes in deaths?
For all global data sources on the pandemic, daily data does not necessarily refer to deaths on that day but to the deaths reported on that day.
Since reporting can vary significantly from day to day irrespectively of any actual variation of deaths it is helpful to look at a longer time span that is less affected by the daily variation in reporting. This provides a clearer picture of where the pandemic is accelerating, staying the same, or reducing.
The first map here provides figures on the number of confirmed deaths in the last two weeks. To enable comparisons across countries it is expressed per million people of the population.
And the second map shows the growth rate over this period: blue are all those countries in which the death count in the last two weeks was lower than in the two weeks before. In red countries the death count has increased.
The following chart shows the share of the total population that has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This represents the share that have received all doses prescribed by the vaccination protocol. If a person receives the first dose of a 2-dose vaccine, this metric stays the same. If they receive the second dose, the metric goes up by 1.
This data is only available for countries which report the breakdown of doses administered by first and second doses.
Japan: Daily Confirmed Deaths: How Do They Compare To Other Countries
This chart shows the daily confirmed deaths per million people of a countrys population.
Why adjust for the size of the population?
Differences in the population size between countries are often large, and the COVID-19 death count in more populous countries tends to be higher. Because of this it can be insightful to know how the number of confirmed deaths in a country compares to the number of people who live there, especially when comparing across countries.
For instance, if 1,000 people died in Iceland, out of a population of about 340,000, that would have a far bigger impact than the same number dying in the United States, with its population of 331 million.1 This difference in impact is clear when comparing deaths per million people of each countrys population in this example it would be roughly 3 deaths/million people in the US compared to a staggering 2,941 deaths/million people in Iceland.
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