By MIREI JINGUJI/ Staff Writer
April 20, 2023 at 18:07 JST
The building housing the health ministry in Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki district (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A ninth wave of novel coronavirus infections in Japan could be bigger than the eighth one, given the relatively low rate of infection and antibodies so far in the country, health experts said.
They also said the death toll could remain high, particularly among infected elderly people, after the government downgrades COVID-19 to the same infectious disease level as seasonal flu starting May 8.
The experts, who are members of a panel advising the health ministry on how to tackle COVID-19, showed a study comparing the situations in Britain and Japan at an April 19 meeting.
The ratio of blood donors with novel coronavirus antibodies from natural infection was 86 percent in Britain, compared with only 42 percent in Japan.
Although infections have been declining in Japan since the eighth wave from October 2022 to March this year, the lack of antibodies could make the Japanese population more susceptible to the virus than people in other countries, the experts said.
In addition, Japan’s share of people aged 75 or older is high.
If the percentage of vaccinated people does not increase, and the infection level after May 8 becomes as high as those in European nations and the United States, the number of deaths in Japan could exceed those in other countries, the experts said.
The health ministry will hold another expert panel meeting in late April to finalize the decision on downgrading COVID-19 to the less-severe Category 5 on May 8.
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