Photo/Illutration Takaji Wakita, director-general of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases who heads the health ministry’s expert panel, speaks at a news conference on Dec. 21. (Kai Ichino)

The fatality rate among people in their 60s and 70s infected with the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus fell to 0.18 percent in July and August, the health ministry said.

In January and February, when the Omicron strain first spread widely across Japan, the death rate in that age group was 0.7 percent.

And during the fifth wave of infections between July and October 2021, driven by the Delta strain of the virus, 1.34 percent of infected patients in their 60s and 70s died.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will take into account the reduced death deaths as it discusses whether to reclassify COVID-19 into a less-severe contagious disease category, such as the one for seasonal flu.

The ministry presented the report on the fatality rates at a Dec. 21 meeting of a panel advising the ministry on anti-coronavirus measures.

The mortality rates for the age brackets were compiled with the cooperation of the Ibaraki, Ishikawa and Hiroshima prefectural governments.

Virus mutations and an increase in vaccination rates were cited as key factors contributing to the declining death rates.

At the meeting, ministry officials noted that the fatality rate from influenza among those in their 60s and 70s was 0.19 percent.

However, Takaji Wakita, director-general of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases who heads the expert panel, warned against making direct comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu.

“Directly comparing them would be inappropriate because the data on patients were collected in different manners,” he said.

Wakita and some other experts on the panel said on Dec. 14 that it would be difficult to compare COVID-19 and influenza because the two diseases have significantly different features.

New cases of COVID-19 have been inching up across the country, according to the ministry.

A total of 206,418 new cases were reported on Dec. 21, topping 200,000 for the first time since Aug. 25.

The daily figures for new cases over the week until Dec. 21 were on average 1.18 times those of the preceding week.

The numbers for serious cases and deaths also increased.

Experts said more people are becoming infected by a mutant strain that can “escape” the immune system and is becoming the dominant variant in Japan.

They said a spike in the size and number of crowds going out at night is contributing to the spread of the virus.

The experts also expressed concern about influenza.

The number of flu patients averaged 0.25 at about 5,000 medical facilities across the nation between Dec. 5 and Dec. 11.

Although the figure is lower than 1.00, the threshold indicating the possible start of flu season, it is much higher than the 0.01 recorded during the same period last year.

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