Article Type : Short commentary
Authors : Bando H, and Urasaki H
Keywords : COVID-19; World Health Organization (WHO); John Hopkins University (JHU); Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW); Japan; Hinohara-ism
Latest
topics for COVID-19 were described. World Health Organization (WHO) revised the
vaccination guidelines of COVID-19 in Mar 2023. John Hopkins University (JHU)
has presented daily data for long, in which data of each district or country
have been useful. Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), Japan compared
general prevalence ratio of positive antibody, as 28.6% in Nov 2022 and 42.3%
in Feb 2023. Japan has high level of protective measures. By Japanese
Infectious Diseases Law, position of COVID-19 will move to the same category as
seasonal influenza from May 2023. People’s wellness will be expected as
Hinohara-ism.
The
crucial problem of COVID-19 was raised in December 2019, and pandemic
influences have been persisted for more than 3 years [1]. Among them, Japan has
shown characteristic phenomenon with remarkable low infection rate, negative
excess mortality [2], high recognition and performance of preventing measures
by people and so on [3,4]. Authors et al. have reported several aspects of
COVID-19 so far [5]. Adequate managements seemed to be almost satisfactory in
Japan [6]. From March 2023, protective measures were gradually discontinued
such as usually wearing masks.
In
the light of world infection status, World Health Organization (WHO) has
presented important commentary [7]. In Jan 2023, Director-General Tedros
announced that COVID-19 still constitutes a "public health emergency of international
concern". It started Jan 30,2020, and then it enters the fourth year. He
gave a comment on April 6 that WHO can lift the emergent status over COVID-19
by the end of 2023 [8] (Figure 1). John Hopkins University (JHU) has continued
to present daily data for years [9].
Concerning the vaccination of COVID-19, large differences have been
reported among developed and developing countries so far. The latest data on
Apr 5 2023 are shown in Figure 2 [8,9].
Among lots of countries, more than 70% of rate of vaccination was
observed in Japan, Korea, Italy, Chile and others. In contrast, low rate was
found in African countries.
WHO
has revised the vaccination guidelines of COVID-19 in March 28, 2023 [10].
Regular vaccination will be recommended every 6-12 months only for the elderly
and those with previous history. Healthy adults under 50-60 years and children
with previous history are recommended to have one time of booster vaccination.
However, regular vaccination is not recommended because it is relatively
infective for public health. For healthy children aged 0.5-17 years old,
vaccination will be decided according to the situation in each country. It is
because the disease is unlikely to become severe when infected [10].
As
to COVID-19 matter in Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has
always announced daily data for long [11]. The prevalence rate of positive
antibody was 28.6%, when it was investigated in Nov 2022 after 7th wave of
Japan. After that, 8th wave was found in all Japan from Nov 2022 to Feb 2023.
In the last February, another same investigation was conducted [12]. As a
result, 42.3% was positive from 16-69 years (n=13,121). The detail data were as
follows: 62.2% for 16-19 years, 51.6% for 20s, 52.2% for 30s, 46.0% for 40s,
36.7% for 50s, 28.3% for 60s. Thus, the ratio became lower as the age
increased. The latest data of COVID-19 in Japan are shown in Figure 3 [9]. The
8th wave was almost over at present.
Figure 1: Reported number of COVID-19 cases in the world, the data are shown by weekly basis from WHO.
Figure 2: Vaccination situation of COVID-19 in the world. Persons received booster or additional dose per 100 population are shown. Confirmed COVID-19 cases were 762 million with 6.79 million deaths on April 5, 2023. Number of vaccine doses were given as 13 billion doses on April 1, 2023.
Figure 3: Newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Japan. Average number of newly confirmed cases were 7,685 cases on April 8, 2023. Previous week showed 6,709 cases a week.
The
Japanese government has announced that the position of COVID-19 under the
Infectious Diseases Law will move to the same category as seasonal influenza
from May 8, 2023 [11-13]. The related perspective was announced from the
Ministry on April 7, in which infection control measures will be shifted to
those based on the voluntary efforts of the people.
The authors declare no
conflict of interest
There was no
funding received for this paper.