Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike attends a July 14 meeting of the metropolitan government’s COVID-19 monitoring panel. (Provided by the Tokyo metropolitan government)

The Tokyo metropolitan government raised its alert for novel coronavirus infections to the highest level on July 14, while experts warned that the current spread was on pace to shatter records in the capital.

It was the first time in about two and a half months for the alert level to reach the top of the four-stage scale.

The metropolitan government also raised the alert for medical services to the second highest level on the four-tier system.

Experts assessing the resurgence of the novel coronavirus in Tokyo said immediate responses are needed.

The daily average of new infections in Tokyo over the week to July 13 was 2.3 times the number from a week earlier. And that week-earlier daily average was 1.9 times the number for the preceding seven-day period, according to reports submitted at a meeting of the metropolitan government’s COVID-19 monitoring panel on July 14.

“If the ratio continues to increase at the current pace, it will exceed the peak of the sixth wave in one week,” Norio Omagari of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine said at the meeting.

The experts estimated the daily average of new COVID-19 cases in Tokyo for the week to July 20 would be 23,253. The average could then more than double to 53,482 in the week to July 27.

The more contagious BA.5 Omicron subvariant is replacing the current dominant strain. BA.5 accounted for 56.4 percent of suspected Omicron infections in Tokyo over the week through July 4, up from 33.4 percent in the previous week.

The experts also showed the results of a survey on antibody retention after people received their second and third doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The survey was conducted on 421 medical workers in the capital by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science.

The results showed that people had a higher antibody retention seven months after the third shot than the same months after the second shot. A fourth shot is expected to provide even more protection. 

But the BA.5 subvariant is proving difficult to combat.

“Two doses of the vaccine cannot prevent infection of (the BA.5 subvariant), while three or four doses may be barely able to protect against infection,” Masayuki Miyasaka, a professor at Osaka University, said at the panel meeting.

Related News