Low immunity against Covid-19 and a growing population of vulnerable elderly people are causing a spike in deaths from the coronavirus in Japan, which has long maintained some of the pandemic’s toughest restrictions.
Japan once had one of the lowest death rates from Covid-19, but the number increased through the end of 2022.
The Asian country reached its historic record on January 20 of this year, with 425 deaths that day, proportionally more than Latin America, the United States or South Korea, among others, according to data from Our World in Data, from the University of Oxford.
Japan was virtually closed to foreign visitors from 2020 until mid-June last year.
Afterwards, the country cautiously opened its borders: at first, travelers had to buy a package tour with health insurance and wear face masks in all public places.
Some children ate in silence for more than two years as schools imposed a lunchtime ban on talking. However, as restrictions have been eased, the population’s low immunity to Covid-19 could be causing an increase in infections, local health experts told the BBC.
Most recent deaths from the virus have been among older adults with underlying medical conditions, the experts added. This contrasts with Japan’s initial string of Covid deaths, caused by pneumonia and often treated in intensive care.
“It’s also difficult to prevent these deaths with treatments,” said Hitoshi Oshitani, one of Japan’s top virologists, adding that Covid-19 was just the trigger.
“Due to the emergence of variants and subvariants —which evade the immune system—and the decline in immunity, it is becoming increasingly difficult to prevent infections,” he said.
“Immune escape” is when the human immune system becomes unable to respond against an infectious agent. New versions of the omicron variant are masters of immune evasion.
Ageing population
Before the emergence of the omicron variant, deaths from Covid-19 in Japan were mostly in cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, but now there are cases across the country, said Oshitani, who was a former WHO regional adviser for surveillance and response to communicable diseases. .
“In smaller prefectures and rural areas, the proportion of the elderly population is even greater than the national average. This change in geographic pattern can also contribute to the trend towards an increase in deaths”, he assessed.
Japan is one of the longest-living societies in the world, and its proportion of elderly people has increased every year since the 1950s.
Elderly people infected in nursing homes or community groups do not receive adequate treatment, according to epidemiologist Kenji Shibuya, director of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research.
He understands that faster treatment could help, but due to Japan’s classification of Covid as a class 2 or “very dangerous” disease, only government-designated hospitals can treat those infected. And they were overwhelmed by the growing number of cases.
Shibuya called for Covid to be downgraded and treated as a form of the flu, allowing all clinics and hospitals to treat patients with the virus.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced earlier this month that the ranking would be downgraded, but not before May 8.
Experts including Japan’s top coronavirus adviser Shigeru Omi have been calling for it since last year.
Japan is one of the few countries still providing daily Covid counts.
Yasuharu Tokuda, a physician at the Institute for Global Health and Policy, said that the natural immunity of the Japanese population, acquired through infection, was low until the middle of last year.
He believes that natural immunity is stronger than that obtained with vaccination; therefore, low infection rates have led to low immunity in Japan, which in turn is causing more deaths.
Oshitani pointed to a similar phenomenon in Australia, where the Covid death rate has been rising since it reopened borders in early 2022 after keeping them closed for two years.
Experts are divided on the trajectory of Covid in Japan. Tokuda, for example, believes that future infection and death rates will be lower. Oshitani, on the other hand, sees a further rise in deaths in the coming months as affordable antiviral drugs are not yet widely available.
– This text was originally published here.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
