Japan to shorten isolation period to seven days for COVID close contacts
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases said that 94.5% of omicron patients tested positive within seven days of coming into contact with the virus and 99.2% within 10 days.
Okinawa may be emerging from the omicron wave. Will the rest of Japan soon follow suit?
After a surge starting around New Year’s that brought the prefecture’s daily case count nearly 2,000, new infections have steadily dropped in recent days.
Japan moves to focus resources on severe COVID-19 patients
Young, low-risk patients will no longer need a doctor's diagnosis to confirm an infection as fears grow over the strain the omicron variant is putting on Japan's health care system.
In 2020, when the pandemic began, the number of suicides among working women grew sharply. But the figure fell slightly in 2021.
The country has already agreeing to procure enough of the drug, Paxlovid, for 2 million people
The health ministry said Tuesday it had received about 85,000 applications as of Thursday for free cloth face masks left in storage.
How the pandemic changed Japan’s health care system
COVID-19 has overhauled work practices and exposed the divisions between the public and private sectors of the medical system.
Japan narrows definition of in-flight omicron close contacts
A policy that had considered all fellow passengers as close contacts was threatening to overwhelm quarantine facilities.
Welfare consultations double in Japan from pre-pandemic level
About 43,000 people had been laid off or had their employment terminated this year due to the pandemic, according to government data.
Japanese men and women see rise in healthy life spans, survey finds
Japan's healthy life expectancy, during which people can live without health issues impeding their daily lives, stood at 72.68 years for men and 75.38 years for women in 2019.
Age limit proposed for women's fertility treatment under Japanese health insurance
The proposal by the health ministry Wednesday will limit coverage for women to those under the age of 43.
Some have warned that it is difficult to prevent infections by border controls alone in view of the variant's suspected strong infectiousness.
