Photo/Illutration Fans wearing face masks form lines for a live show by all-female idol group Nogizaka 46 in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, on Feb. 21. (Yudai Takahashi)

The health ministry on Feb. 20 urged the public and event organizers to think twice about holding large-scale events due to concerns about the deadly coronavirus that is spreading in Japan.

While stressing there was no need to cancel every event, the ministry indicated it may raise the level of its advisory on such matters in the coming weeks.

The risk of infection rises if people “stay in a closed environment or other locations for a certain period without maintaining a sufficient distance from each other,” the health ministry's statement noted.

But the statement is too vague to serve as a useful guideline for people to make decisions.

As tips for event organizers, the ministry recommends urging participants to wash their hands frequently and providing alcohol-based disinfectants for participants. Such precautions are already widely in place.

What does “a sufficient distance” exactly mean, for instance? It is also unclear what kind of factors organizers should pay special attention to with regard to event venues and circumstances.

The ministry needs to provide more specific advice, backed up by solid data, so event organizers and the public in general can make more educated decisions.

The risk of infection should be reduced as much as realistically possible. But it would be unrealistic to demand that all events and gatherings be canceled or postponed. Voluntary restrictions, if implemented excessively, inevitably darken the mood in society and cause economic activity to stagnate.

Companies and organizations that have a business continuity plan should use it to make level-headed decisions. Japanese society is facing an acid test of not just its ability to prevent an epidemic but also its ability to keep its collective mind calm and cool at this trying time.

What about the risk of contracting the virus in a jam-packed commuter train? Eliminating the risk completely would require canceling all train services.

But that would deprive huge numbers of people of a means of transportation and inflict tremendous damage on society. Vital public businesses and services need to be maintained, in principle.

But it is possible for companies and workplaces that rely on train services to get employees to work to help reduce the risk by resorting to such measures such as staggered working hours and allowing them work at home and adopting telework-based operations.

If such voluntary efforts by individual organizations help ease congestion in rush-hour trains, the risk will decline.

As a result, people who have no choice but to take trains during rush hours will benefit, which will be a boon to the society as a whole.

The health ministry on Feb. 21 asked business organizations, including Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), to ensure that member companies contribute to the nation’s battle to prevent an epidemic.

The requested steps include allowing employees showing signs of fever and other flu-like symptoms to rest at home and creating workplace environments and leave systems that make employees feel comfortable about taking days off. These measures naturally have the potential to affect people working part-time or on temporary contracts.

At many workplaces and schools, it is now customary to allow employees and students who have caught the flu to absent themselves from work or classes for five days after the onset of the disease.

This policy may cause temporary effects on other people at the workplace or school but it is a sensible way to help curb the expansion of the outbreak.

In our society’s battle against an infectious disease, we all need to base our actions on reliable information and sensible strategies.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 22

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