The Japanese government, struggling to control its latest and largest COVID outbreak while maintaining the Olympic bubble, is turning to a new tactic — public shaming.
On Monday, Japan’s health ministry released the names of three people who broke COVID rules after returning from overseas. An official statement said that the three people, two returning from South Korea and one from Hawaii, had clearly acted to avoid contact with the authorities.
All three had negative virus tests on arrival at the airport but thereafter neglected to report their health condition and did not respond to location-monitoring apps or video calls from the health authorities.
In May, the Japanese government had said that about 100 people a day were flouting the border control rules, and warned that it would disclose the names of violators soon.
Japanese authorities are struggling to adapt their COVID response as caseloads surge to their highest levels of the pandemic and vaccinations continue to lag behind other wealthy nations. Public fatigue seems to be setting in from the on-and-off emergency measures the government has imposed in various cities.
And in the face of rising cases, the Japanese government failed to speed up its vaccination campaign. It has maintained that hosting the Olympics inside a tightly controlled bubble, with spectators and athletes isolated from the public, did risk exacerbating the outbreak.
While comparatively few infections have occurred inside the Games, totalling about 300 so far, some Japanese people say that seeing the Olympics held in Tokyo has encouraged them to relax against the virus. The first cases were reported on July 17, with two members of the South Africa soccer team testing positive despite having tested negative on their departure.
Yet the outbreak has continued to worsen. On Tuesday, officials said they had recorded more than 8300 daily cases across Japan, slightly down from the weekend’s record high of more than 10 000. A total of 3709 cases were reported in Tokyo, also slightly lower than previous days.
On Monday the government said that it would hospitalise only those with severe cases of COVID, to avoid increasing the strain on hospitals, suggesting that they are already starting to struggle with the influx of cases.
Source: New York Times
