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If you look from Europe to Asia, and especially China and Japan, you have to consider the huge cultural differences before making judgments. Japan in particular is completely misunderstood and a crisis is seen where there is none. The measures taken in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Japan differ slightly from ours, a blockade was not necessary.
Health authorities in Hong Kong (upper image) and neighboring Shenzhen (second lower image: central shopping street) managed to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 relatively quickly without a complete shutdown. The experiences were in Lancet Public Health (2020; DOI: 10.1016 / S2468-2667 (20) 30090-6) for Hong Kong and in Lancet Infectious Diseases (2020; DOI: 10.1016 / S1473-3099 (20) 30287-5) for Shenzhen described.
No confinement in Shenzhen and Hong Kong
The measures introduced in late January, which restricted public life less than later in Europe and North America, proved effective. As Peng Wu of the University of Hong Kong reports, at the end of March there were only 715 cases of COVID-19 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, including 94 asymptomatic infections and 4 deaths in a population of about 7.5 million who lived in a confined area.
The measures related, on the one hand, to a 14-day quarantine for all people who came from the country of origin China or from other countries where SARS-CoV-2 had already occurred. All people with COVID-19 were isolated in hospitals. The authorities carried out an intensive search for contacts. If the result was positive, the contacts had to leave their homes and quarantine the time until the infection ended in special facilities. And that is the very essential difference for measures in Europe.
Low number of diseases
The population was also called to stay away from other people and to wear face masks. Schools closed in late January, and public employees were dispatched to the central office in late February, if possible. A complete blockade was later avoided in Europe and North America.
The measures were enough to keep the number of cases low in February. When there was an increase in March, symptom detection and subsequent testing by asymptomatic immigrants intensified. The number of views, which had increased to 1.5 in early March, could drop to less than 1 again. By the end of March, it had risen to just over 1 without triggering a rapid epidemic.
An interesting side effect was the early termination of the influenza epidemic. The number of diseases decreased by 44%. The base reproductive number for flu illnesses decreased from 1.28 to 0.72 according to Wu’s calculations. The decline was more pronounced than in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic (“swine flu”) or severe influenza B in the winter of 2017/18.
The example of Japan
Japan (third image of the Kyoto Golden Temple below) made headlines for the first time when the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Yokohama was quarantined. Seventeen days of catastrophic mismanagement followed, but also an interesting teaching example of infectivity and mortality. Exciting especially since ALL the passengers and crew members were actually tested on the ship, regardless of whether they had symptoms or not. Of the 3,711 people on board, 712 were sick (19.1%) and 13 were killed. This gives us a mortality rate of 0.35%, so it should be noted that the highest risk group with previous illnesses is particularly common on cruise ships.
Although Diamond Princess passengers were together in the smallest spaces, just under 20 percent were infected with the virus, but in no time! Almost half of those who developed a crown showed no symptoms.
Japan with very few beds?
This is a headline that continues to circulate in the Western media. But without understanding what is really happening. An article on NHK World, the public broadcaster’s English website on April 22, highlights this. Title “Japan runs out of hospital beds to treat coronavirus patients“It makes a scenario fear that there will be no more beds in intensive care units, as was feared over and over after the example of Italy.
A few paragraphs later, you can find out what’s really going on: of the 11,000 beds prepared for crown patients, about 6,600 are occupied. But in 6 prefectures, these beds are occupied in more than 80%.
Hospital beds for infected people without symptoms: Japan is different
The Tokyo region with 37 million inhabitants is, of course, particularly affected. Therefore, the following measure according to NHK World:
“In Tokyo, to unleash the hospital capacity of critically ill patients, the Metropolitan Government has begun transferring people who tested positive for the virus but who show only mild symptoms or no symptoms to hotels“
Even people with severe symptoms are often not even tested, and infected people are quarantined at home, no doubt being admitted to a hospital. In Japan they go to the hospital even if they do not have or have mild symptoms. In Hong Kong and Shenzhen, this was handled a little more intelligently, and quarantine options were created outside of hospitals.
Therefore, Japan is not comparable to Europe, the procedure is completely different but similar to Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
To date, 11,212 active cases are known, of which 308 are in critical condition and there have been 431 deaths since the pandemic began, which is 3 cases per million inhabitants (Austria 66, Germany 79).
An emergency ordinance is currently in effect in Japan, which expires on May 6. NHK World reports today that this emergency measure may be extended, despite new infections, according to Japan’s Minister of Economic Revitalization, Nishimura Yasutoshi. According to Nishimura, the restrictions will only apply to certain regions. Restrictions, which anyway correspond to what is generally valid for us from May.
I’ve described more about Japan and, in particular, the background to the extremely low death rate here:
Why does Japan have so few coronavirus diseases?
Japan: second crown crown weaker than the first
Crown crisis: Japan with Sweden model but lower mortality
Corona Peak exceeded: data from Sweden, England, Austria and Japan
