#14,892
Up until about 4 days ago Japan's Ministry of Health was making it fairly easy to keep track of new COVID-19 cases, listing them in (easily translatable) HTML, with detailed epidemiological information.
Since February 15th, their reporting has changed, with only a brief summary of cases and links to individual Prefectures that are reporting cases. Those links lead - not to HTML listings, but to PDF or graphical formats - neither of which lend themselves to machine translation.On Saturday, in Japan MOH: 3 More COVID-19 Cases In Wakayama Prefecture, we saw Japan's total jump to 40 cases (excluding the Diamond Princess), with the 3rd, 4th and 5th case linked to a hospital in Wakayama Prefecture.
That same day, we saw an announcement from Tokyo Confirming 8 More COVID-19 Cases, bringing their total to 48, but without the details we were getting from the MOH.Three days later, the MOH has posted the following statement, indicating a jump of 24 cases (n=73).
About outbreak of patient associated with new coronavirus (54-59 cases)
Today (February 18), Wakayama Prefecture, Tokyo and Aichi Prefecture reported the following cases of infectious disease related to the new type of coronavirus (six patients and one asymptomatic pathogen carrier) as follows. I will report it.
With this announcement, there are 73 domestically infected people (59 patients, 14 asymptomatic pathogen carriers).
We will carry out proactive epidemiological investigations on this matter, including the identification of close contacts.(SNIP)
Outline:
Wakayama Prefecture: 2 patients (54th case: male in their 60s, 55th case: male in their 30s), 1 case of asymptomatic pathogen carrier (male in 10s)
Tokyo: 3 patients (56th case: Male in their 80s, 57th: Male in their 20s, Male in their 58s: Male in their 50s)
Aichi: Information from 1 patient (59th: Male in their 60s) and below, from Wakayama, Tokyo and Aichi
* If the contents of the documents released by the local government do not meet the ministry's publication standards, they will be published in accordance with the ministry's publication standards.
○ Wakayama Prefectural
New Coronavirus Infectious Disease Report ・ Sixth Report (Wakayama Prefecture)
○ Tokyo
About outbreak of new type coronavirus infection patient (Tokyo)
○ About outbreak of new type coronavirus infection patient in Aichi
(7th prefecture) (Aichi)
Apparently they aren't assigning numbers to the asymptomatic cases. While details are scant, one Japanese media source is reporting the number of cases in the hospital cluster in Wakayama has grown to 12.
While this new reporting format doesn't make it particularly easy for us to follow individual cases, I'm sure the MOH has their hands full right now dealing with the cascading patient load from the Diamond Princess and the spike in local cases.
3 More in Japan's Wakayama Confirmed Infected with Coronavirus
Feb 18, 2020
Tokyo, Feb. 18 (Jiji Press)--The prefectural government of Wakayama said Tuesday three more people have been confirmed to be infected with the new COVID-19 coronavirus originating in China, with the total number of known cases in the western Japan prefecture rising to 12.(Continue . . . )
While this new reporting format doesn't make it particularly easy for us to follow individual cases, I'm sure the MOH has their hands full right now dealing with the cascading patient load from the Diamond Princess and the spike in local cases.
What is clear is that Japan has seen their case count - which sat at 23 on Feb 10th - triple over the past 7 days, most - if not all - from locally acquired infections.Which is why - two days ago - their MOH Warned Japan Was Entering `New Phase' Of COVID-19 Spread, and yesterday they issued Guidelines To Prevent A `Rush' On Hospitals From COVID-19 and the worried well.
