Japan to lower COVID-19 flu status; further easing rules
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday announced plans to downgrade the legal status of COVID-19 to the equivalent of seasonal influenza in the spring, a move that would further relax mask wearing and other preventive measures as the country seeks to return to normalcy.
Kishida indicated that he has instructed experts as well as government officials to talk about details of lowering COVID-19’s current status. The change would also allow COVID-19 patients access to any hospital, regardless of their location.
“In order to return to our ordinary daily life in Japan while pursuing measures to adapt to living with the coronavirus, we will study concrete measures to gradually move on to a next step,” Kishida said.
COVID-19 in Japan is currently classified as a class 2 disease. This means that patients and their close friends are restricted from moving and they can be issued emergency measures by the central and local governments. It would be possible to downgrade it to Class 5, but that would mean that these rules could be scrapped.
The change planned would be a major turning point for Japan’s COVID-19 policies toward normalizing social-economic activities.
However, the move comes at a time when Japan is facing widespread infections and record-breaking levels of death in what is being called its eighth wave outbreak since the pandemic started three years ago.
The Health Ministry reported that the number of daily deaths reached a record 503 on Saturday. Experts suspect that the recent increase may be related to an increase in chronic illness among older patients.
According to Health Minister Katsunobu Kato, a downgrading of COVID-19’s legal status under the infectious diseases law could eliminate ongoing hospitalization and self isolation rules and free up hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.
He stated that the idea was to make COVID-19 treatment part of regular medical services. But he cautioned: “Changing its classification doesn’t mean coronavirus is gone. We still need everyone to take voluntary measures by using masks and precautions.”
Kato stated that wearing masks outdoors is no longer necessary, and that indoor use will be made easier once the downgrade is complete.
Kato said it will require some adjustments for people, workplaces, municipalities and hospitals, and declined to set an exact timeline, other than to say it would occur in “the spring.”
Details are still being finalized, but for the moment the government will cover the cost of COVID-19 treatment and vaccinations.
Japan last fall stopped requiring COVID-19 tests for entrants who had at least three shots — part of the country’s careful easing of measures after virtually closing its borders to foreign tourists for about two years.
Japan reports daily cases between 100,000-200,000.