[henearkr]

Japan just passed the peak of the second wave.

It seems like the situation is slowly improving, and is on the good slope, but the epidemic is very much still alive.

I always look at the "要入院" (people needing hospitalization) curve on the graph, rather than the "新規" (new cases) curve, because it cannot be manipulated as easily by changes in testing policies. I use the following site:

https://newsdigest.jp/pages/coronavirus/

[bamboozled]

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but look at how few tests are being done in Tokyo though?

https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/

It's tiny, Tokyo, often not even breaking 4000 in a city of 14 million.

Not to mention it's difficult to get tested without meeting certain _criteria_ or pay 30000Y. I know people in Aus and the US countries who have been tested multiple times by now for free.

The testing is hopeless, the results are tallied up by faxes sent around from different wards in Tokyo and are delayed by a few days. Really, it's a pretty sad state of affairs.

I think it's nice that whatever numbers Japan is presenting are on the down trend, but the narrative is also tightly controlled no one knows what to really believe.

[henearkr]

I hate too the testing policy in Japan.

But this policy alone cannot explain a supposed anomaly in the count of "requiring hospitalization" covid patients. That's because I assume that the persons with covid with a health state that requires hospitalization will always be tested.

What do you think would be a plausible bias? Maybe less aggravating factors among infected Japanese people?

[bamboozled]

I do think it's likely that mostly younger people make up the majority of new cases, that's probably a large part of it.

Then many young people seem to wear masks in public (at work etc) so they just don't easily spread it to elderly? Who knows...