New COVID-19 cases are soaring across Japan. The number of newly confirmed cases in Tokyo hit a record high for two consecutive days, surpassing 3,000.

The three neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa plan to press the national government to apply a state of emergency to them.

While new cases among elderly people are not rising markedly, working-age patients now constitute the bulk of serious cases and hospitalizations. The number of beds available for COVID-19 patients is diminishing steadily.

The Delta variant, a more transmissible form of the novel coronavirus, has quickly become the dominant variant in Japan as in many other parts of the world.

Since this new COVID-19 wave is sweeping the nation in the middle of summer vacations, when many people move about, many experts in infectious diseases and health care workers are voicing stronger warnings than ever.

Disturbingly, however, their sense of urgency is not shared by the national or local governments or the public in general.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, for example, does not appear to be alarmed by the situation as he should be.

While calling on people to avoid nonessential outings, Suga, when asked on July 27 about the resurgence’s effects on the ongoing Tokyo Olympics, asserted that there is no need for concern because foot traffic in cities is decreasing.

But the decline is smaller than during the past periods when a state of emergency was in place. Crowds are even growing in certain areas.

Political leaders cannot help ease anxiety among the people by making remarks focused only on convenient facts.

Suga’s latest comment is all the more troubling because of his history of promoting unfounded optimism while failing to bring the pandemic under control.

The head of the Tokyo metropolitan government’s Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health on July 27 claimed the capital’s health care system is nowhere near the brink of being overwhelmed by new COVID-19 cases and called on news organizations to refrain from publishing reports that “arouse unnecessary anxiety.”

But on July 26, the metropolitan government asked medical institutions in the capital to consider scaling down emergency medical care and postponing surgeries where possible to secure beds for COVID-19 patients.

Why did the public health chief of the capital’s government try to gloss over the grim reality? The official’s remarks are clearly at odds with public anxiety and the sense of urgency among health care workers. Does Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike share the same view about the current situation?

While calling for voluntary restrictions on outings and travel, both the central and metropolitan governments have been forging ahead with the Olympics, a huge international event, in a way that creates a festive mood.

The negative effects of this policy inconsistency are manifesting themselves in various ways. Moreover, the Japanese public has become somewhat accustomed to a state of emergency and more cynical about the government’s policy responses to the pandemic partly due to its snafu over requests to bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol.

The people are now far less willing to respond to calls for restrictions from the administration.

Policymakers and political leaders should first realize that their own inconsistent actions have undermined the effectiveness of their messages to citizens. Then, they need to take measures to improve the situation based on lessons from their past mistakes.

Suga told the Diet that the Olympics can be held only if the life and health of the people can be protected. The government needs to act in line with Suga’s pledge.

Data about elderly patients clearly indicate that widespread vaccination is effective for mitigating the damage from the pandemic.

The government should focus on its policy efforts to ride out the current crisis on minimizing the number of deaths and serious cases and ensuring that the health care system can provide necessary services for all people who need them until a large percentage of the population is inoculated.

But this goal cannot be achieved unless the current situation and necessary responses to it are correctly recognized by society as a whole.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 29