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I read yesterday that Japan had administered something like 16,000 COVID-19 tests in total. So I think they're basically not testing and hoping that it goes awa

I read yesterday that Japan had administered something like 16,000 COVID-19 tests in total. So I think they're basically not testing and hoping that it goes away.

freetime2 7y ago
I would be interested to read if you could share the source for the above. It’s true that Japan only seems to be testing people with serious symptoms at the moment. But we would expect hospitalizations and deaths to be higher if the number were really that high.
- Hamuko 7y ago
  Doesn't Japan already have a pretty high number of death for the supposed amount of cases? Sweden for example has 36 deaths for 2286 cases whereas Japan has 42 deaths for 1140 cases. And South Korea has 9037 cases and 120 deaths, so about three times as many deaths but nine times as many cases.
- summerlight 7y ago
  Japan actively avoids testing if those deaths are due to COVID-19. If someone recently dies with pneumonia, it's worth to test if this is the COVID-19 case. Japan doesn't and it claims that the public fear will overload and collapse their medical infrastructure. I don't really understand why this can even be the case, but this is a broadly accepted sentiment around Japan. And its annual death toll from typical pneumonia is around 100k, so Japan can easily hide it even if they had hundreds of the COVID-19 death cases by not testing it. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/24/national/tokyo-governor-urges-cooperation-avoid-city-lockdown/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/24/national/tokyo-... Meanwhile, Tokyo's governor is actively considering lock-down due to a potential explosive rise. Lock-down for a city like Tokyo (which has roughly one third of their entire GDP) is clearly a nuclear option. If you really have only hundreds of the cases, this can (and should) be handled by comprehensive testing and tracing like S. Korea. Or perhaps their confidential COVID-19 projection doesn't agree with Japan's official stats...
  - greedo 7y ago
    From that article they state that Tokyo had 154 infections, with 101 hospitalized. That hospitalization rate is roughly 5x higher than seen elsewhere; implying that their actual infection count is closer to 750. I think there's something amiss...

I read yesterday that Japan had administered something like 16,000 COVID-19 tests in total. So I think they're basically not testing and hoping that it goes away.

freetime2 7y ago

I would be interested to read if you could share the source for the above. It’s true that Japan only seems to be testing people with serious symptoms at the moment. But we would expect hospitalizations and deaths to be higher if the number were really that high.

Hamuko 7y ago
Doesn't Japan already have a pretty high number of death for the supposed amount of cases? Sweden for example has 36 deaths for 2286 cases whereas Japan has 42 deaths for 1140 cases. And South Korea has 9037 cases and 120 deaths, so about three times as many deaths but nine times as many cases.
summerlight 7y ago
Japan actively avoids testing if those deaths are due to COVID-19. If someone recently dies with pneumonia, it's worth to test if this is the COVID-19 case. Japan doesn't and it claims that the public fear will overload and collapse their medical infrastructure. I don't really understand why this can even be the case, but this is a broadly accepted sentiment around Japan. And its annual death toll from typical pneumonia is around 100k, so Japan can easily hide it even if they had hundreds of the COVID-19 death cases by not testing it. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/24/national/tokyo-governor-urges-cooperation-avoid-city-lockdown/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/24/national/tokyo-... Meanwhile, Tokyo's governor is actively considering lock-down due to a potential explosive rise. Lock-down for a city like Tokyo (which has roughly one third of their entire GDP) is clearly a nuclear option. If you really have only hundreds of the cases, this can (and should) be handled by comprehensive testing and tracing like S. Korea. Or perhaps their confidential COVID-19 projection doesn't agree with Japan's official stats...
- greedo 7y ago
  From that article they state that Tokyo had 154 infections, with 101 hospitalized. That hospitalization rate is roughly 5x higher than seen elsewhere; implying that their actual infection count is closer to 750. I think there's something amiss...