Photo/Illutration Yasutoshi Nishimura, the state minister of economic revitalization who is also in charge of novel coronavirus measures, speaks at a council of COVID-19 experts panel on July 6. (Hikaru Uchida)

A new council of the central government’s panel to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic approved the government’s plan to ease restrictions on large-scale events at its first meeting on July 6.

Starting from July 10, events with up to 5,000 attendees will be allowed. But the total number of attendees must stay within 50 percent of a venue’s maximum capacity. Currently, the limit is set at 1,000.

The council members, including medical and economics experts, urged the government to require event organizers to keep attendees’ contact information and other data as a preventive measure.

Professional baseball and soccer matches, which have been held behind closed doors during the pandemic, will be able to welcome fans as of July 10.

“The situation is different area by area,” Yasutoshi Nishimura, the state minister of economic revitalization who is also in charge of coronavirus-related policies, said at a news conference. “Each prefectural government will make a decision based on the central government’s guidelines.”

The council was established as a replacement for the government’s panel of infectious diseases experts that advised the central government since the outbreak started.

Its first meeting went on for about two and a half hours. Members shared the assessment that there are currently not many severe patients and health care systems are not on the verge of collapse--a stark difference from early April, when the central government issued a nationwide state of emergency.

At the same time, they assessed risks stemming from a certain number of patients whose sources of infection cannot be determined, along with the rising number of patients middle-aged and older.

Shigeru Omi, chair of the council, commented on the central government’s coronavirus response so far at a news conference.

“They did not fully discuss ideas and strategies to expand testing systems,” he said. “There should be a consensus on where to draw a line between acceptable and unacceptable infection risks.”

Omi said the council will propose a testing strategy that would fit different local situations and various infection risks.

“In my opinion, taking measures to prevent a virus from spreading is crisis management, and we need to think about the worst-case scenario. It is too late to start thinking about these things after the situation makes things so bad that the government needs to issue a state of emergency,” Omi said.

The council’s meetings will be closed to the public, in principle, except for opening statements.

Minutes of the meeting will be made available to the public after about a decade, when the documents are moved to the National Archives of Japan.

The council makes a summary of its meetings available to the public.

Related News