The company has been criticized for changing its policies overnight, and the pace of prevention is in disarray, making the prospects of the Tokyo Olympics, expected to be held in July, difficult to be optimistic.
(schematic diagram/reproduced from Academia Sinica)
The government has been forced to extend and expand the area of application for two times, showing that it is difficult to restrain the spread of the epidemic.
The government has been criticized for changing its policy from time to time.
The Japanese government’s proposal was overturned by epidemic prevention experts on the morning of the 14th, and the decision to change direction to include three prefectures, including Hokkaido, Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures, in the emergency zone was criticized by outsiders as an “overnight change”.
The Japanese government decided on April 23, from April 25 to May 11, for the 2019 coronavirus disease (Chinese common virus, COVID-19) epidemic serious Tokyo, Osaka Prefecture, Hyogo Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture 4 prefectures, 3 times issued a “declaration of emergency”.
However, with the spread of the epidemic, the Japanese government announced on May 7 that the state of emergency in the four prefectures would be extended until May 31, and from May 12 the scope was extended to include Aichi and Fukuoka prefectures, a total of six prefectures.
Then there was another change in decision making on the morning of the 14th.
The Japanese government held a subcommittee on basic epidemic prevention and response policy on the morning of the 14th, which was composed of infectious disease experts and other people, and the attending Minister of Economic Revitalization, Yasutoshi Nishimura, proposed a proposal to add five prefectures, including Gunma Prefecture, to apply “priority measures to prevent the spread of the disease” from the 16th to June 13 of this month. At this time, the Japanese government does not intend to add Hokkaido and other places to the “Declaration of Emergency” target areas.
However, experts at the meeting suggested that the Japanese government should take stronger measures to prevent the epidemic, so Nishimura changed the content of the consultation to include Hokkaido, Okayama Prefecture and Hiroshima Prefecture, where the epidemic is currently serious, in the scope of the “Declaration of Emergency” for the period from the 16th to the 31st of this month.
The Japanese news agency reported that when Nishimura proposed the consultation on the morning of the 14th, he only calmly stated that the government intended to implement “priority measures to prevent the spread of the disease” in five additional prefectures, but the permanent director of the Japan Medical Association and others proposed to “elevate Hokkaido to the emergency declaration”. However, the proposal by the permanent director of the Japan Medical Association and others to “elevate Hokkaido to a declaration of emergency” was the beginning of a change in decision-making, and most of the experts present at the meeting called on the government to take tougher measures against the disease.
Nishimura, who had to attend the cabinet meeting, left the meeting in the middle of the meeting and then discussed with Prime Minister Kan; Kan thought that the experts’ opinions should be respected and responded to the situation, so Nishimura had to revise the government’s original proposal.
Two days later, on the 12th of this month, the chairman of the Japanese government’s Sub-Committee on Epidemic Prevention and Countermeasures, Shigeru Ogin, expressed his sense of crisis about the spread of the mutated strain of the virus throughout the country at a meeting of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s expert organizations, and advocated that “a declaration of emergency should be issued for Hokkaido, Okayama Prefecture and Hiroshima Prefecture”.
The Japanese government is worried about the economic impact of the expanded emergency.
However, Kan did not change his cautious attitude towards the expansion of the “emergency declaration” because he was worried about the impact it would have on the economy.
Until the 13th of this month, when Kan discussed with Nishimura and other relevant ministry heads at the Prime Minister’s residence, he decided to hold off on including Hokkaido in the scope of the declaration and hoped to implement priority measures in Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures first.
This time, the Japanese government decided to expand the scope of the “Declaration of Emergency” to 9 prefectures and expand the implementation of “priority measures to prevent the spread of the disease” to 10 prefectures from 16 onwards, the Japanese government sources said that the purpose is to smoothly put down the epidemic before the debut of the East Olympics. The Japanese government said that the aim is to contain the epidemic before the East Olympics.
If the Japanese government does not get what it wants, the voices of doubt about the East Olympics are bound to rise, so Kan reiterated at yesterday evening’s press conference that it is possible to achieve a safe and secure event as long as epidemic prevention measures are thoroughly carried out, in an effort to dispel the doubts of the outside world about the East Olympics.
The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to open on July 23, but the epidemic in Tokyo and many places in Japan has not slowed down, making the voices of those inside and outside of Japan calling for the suspension of the East Olympics growing louder and louder, whether the East Olympics can be held as scheduled, the outlook is still cloudy.
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