Weekly Update: News on Japan & the Netherlands – Week 49, 2020

Nationwide, the number of reported cases as of 6:30 p.m. was 2,011. After Tokyo, the prefectures with the most cases were Osaka (318), Hokkaido (206), Aichi (197), Kanagawa (158), Hyogo (123), Saitama (104), Chiba (74), Ibaraki (50), Shizuoka (42), Fukuoka (33) and Okinawa (27). Twenty-eight coronavirus-related deaths were reported.

In response to the increasing infections, Health Minister Tamura Norihisa said, “The number of people in serious condition tends to lag behind new cases. So the fact that serious ones have increased to nearly 500 means we’re facing a sense of crisis.”

Tamura is also urging local governments to secure enough hospital beds. He says COVID-19 patients who don’t require hospitalization should be quarantined in designated facilities, including hotels to free up resources.

The biggest hotspot is Tokyo. More than a quarter of total cases nationwide have been confirmed in the capital. Officials reported over 370 cases on Tuesday in the city of 14 million. Metropolitan government officials want local hospitals to increase the number of beds for seriously ill patients from 150 to 200 to meet the growing demand.

The metropolitan government will provide 400,000 yen in financial support to each business complying with the request to close by 10 p.m. through 17 December. But some are undecided or will apparently refuse to do so.

“Our sales had just started recovering. I can understand why the request was made but it is difficult to comply with it during the year’s busiest season,” said Jun Sagae, manager of a pub in Shimbashi, a popular eating area for office workers. The pub had followed two similar requests made earlier.

A pub near Ueno Station, a busy transport hub, said Saturday it will comply with the request. “The number of customers has begun to decline again due to the resurgence of infections,” one of its employees said, adding, “The 400,000 yen support is not sufficient at all. We hope that infections will settle down soon.”

Aichi Medical University professor Hiroshige Mikamo said at a forum on the coronavirus on Saturday that infections have “spread through all ages for the third wave” of the virus, and cases are growing again among the elderly.

In addition to Tokyo, Osaka and Miyagi, which were included in the first round of antibody testing in June, the ministry said testing will also be carried out in Aichi and Fukuoka prefectures.

Japan tested around 8,000 people in June for coronavirus antibodies, and the results showed a 0.10% infection rate in Tokyo. The positivity rates for Osaka and Miyagi in the country’s west and northeast were 0.17% and 0.03%, respectively.

Health experts said the outcome showed a very limited spread of the virus as the three regions’ positivity rates were much lower than some 20% detected in New York and 5% in Spain. They concluded that the first wave of infection was “fairly contained” in Japan after analyzing the test results.

The reappearance of the rings is the latest sign that organizers and the International Olympic Committee are increasingly confident that 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes can safely enter Japan during the pandemic.

These Olympics are sure to be like no other. They will hinge partly on the availability of vaccines and rapid testing for COVID-19, and on athletes and other participants following strict rules that could involve quarantines, a limited number of fans in venues, and athletes leaving Japan shortly after they finish their competitions.

Organizers have been vague about exactly how the Olympics will be held. Plans are in flux with dozens of COVID-19 countermeasures being floated involving athletes, fans, and tens of thousands of officials, judges, VIPs, and media and broadcasters.

Protocols should become clearer early in 2021 when decisions must be made about permitting fans from abroad, which will affect revenue from ticket sales. The meter continues to run on billions in costs, with Japanese taxpayers picking up most of the bills. Reports in Japan this week say the cost of the postponement is about €2.5 billion.

Takeshi Inoue, director of the Akashi Municipal Planetarium in Hyogo Prefecture, said that while shooting stars brighter than Venus are generally known as bolides, it is rare for them to be so bright. “We believe the last burst of light was as bright as the full moon,” he said.

In July, a similarly bright shooting star was observed moving from southwest to northeast in the sky above Tokyo. It was later identified as a meteor after fragments were found in neighboring Chiba Prefecture. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has said several fireballs are observed every month on average, but it is rare for people to hear anything.

Postal services are operated under a universal service obligation in Japan, including rural areas, remote islands and mountainous regions. Japan Post Co, a unit of Japan Post Holdings Co, had been calling for a review of the postal law to end Saturday delivery as it faces a shortage of workers and rising labor costs.

While demand for “snail mail” has been declining with the rise of email, demand for the delivery of parcels has been on the rise as an increasing number of people shop items online. Last year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications accepted a government panel’s proposal to end Saturday delivery of mail.

A bill to amend the law was initially planned to be submitted to the Diet last year or earlier this year, but it was delayed due to a fraud scandal involving sales of insurance products at the Japan Post group.

Airlines around the world are considering introducing the CommonPass. US carrier United Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways are conducting trials. Efforts to develop CommonPass are being supported by the World Economic Forum.

Challenges that must be overcome before a full-fledged launch of the app as a globally standardized format include cooperation among global quarantine officials and other authorities.

Figures from patient coordination office LCPS also showed that 187 more people were admitted to hospitals for COVID-19 during the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday, 2 p.m. During that time, 20 patients were moved into intensive care.

Dutch hospitals on Tuesday were treating 1,683 people for the coronavirus disease, a single-day decrease of 38 after accounting for new admissions, deaths, and discharges. That was the lowest total since 18 October. There were 1,205 people in regular care wards, down 35 in a day, and the intensive care units were treating three fewer, or 478. The ICU tally fell to its lowest point since 23 October.

The law also comes with the “urgent advice” to avoid singing or shouting in groups. According to the government, singing and shouting proved to be a source of infections, even if people adhere to the other COVID-19 measures at the time. “This means that it is not recommended to shout or sing in choirs in groups or to go to singing lessons with several people.” Children up to the age of 12 are excepted from this advice.

To make enforcement easier for the police and enforcers, the term ‘household’ will no longer be used when talking about coronavirus rules. For example, until now people had to maintain social distancing unless they were from the same household. Now you have to mantain social distancing unless you live at the same address, i.e. you share the same front door.

From 1 December, parliament and the Senate will also have more of a say in what rules are in place against the coronavirus. Instead of the Public Health Minister laying down measures in emergency regulations, the government must now first submit these regulations to parliament and the Senate for approval. They will have a week to approve the measure. If they don’t, it will expire and not take effect. If there is acute danger to public health, the government can use an emergency procedure to implement the measure immediately, but it will lapse after a week if parliament and the Senate do not approve it.

De Jonge said that “this really is the best-case scenario.” He cautioned that optimism should be tempered by the possibility that the EMA and the European Commission investigation happens more slowly than hoped, adding that, “safety comes before speed.”

In the meantime, De Jonge said the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport will begin mounting the logistics needed to launch a wide-scale vaccination program. According to the country’s vaccination strategy, elderly people, medically vulnerable people and healthcare workers who come into contact with COVID-19 patients will be the first to get their shots. The vaccine will be provided to residents free of charge, and on a voluntary basis.

If given approval, the Netherlands expects to take delivery of enough doses of the Pfizer vaccine in December to inoculate 450 thousand people. More shipments of 1.6 million doses through the first three months of next year could provide vaccinations to 800 thousand others.

“A decision on Moderna’s vaccine is expected in mid-January, EMA reports,” the ministry said. It could provide 400 thousand doses to the Netherlands by the end of March. Like the Pfizer treatment, it also requires two doses for maximum effectiveness, and would thus protect about 200 thousand people.

The European Union has deals with four other vaccine candidates, including AstraZeneca, Curevac, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen, and Sanofi. All but one require two doses. The Netherlands would gain access to 50 million vaccine doses in total if all six are approved, which can be used on over 29 million people.

The Netherlands is set to acquire 3.89% of all vaccine units produced for the European Union. Only pricing of the Pfizer vaccine has been leaked, at an estimated price of 15.50 euros per dose. The Netherlands has set aside 700 million euros to purchase vaccines, and estimated the logistical costs of transportation, storage, and inoculation at between 900 million and a billion euros.

“Output is projected to improve gradually in 2021 and 2022,” the OECD said. Higher consumption will be the driving force behind initial recovery. But as the government’s job retention scheme is phased out, unemployment will rise. That, combined with limited wage growth and declining household wealth, will dampen private consumption growth in the next two years.

Business investment will also remain subdued, “reflecting weak demand and lingering uncertainty”, the organization said. Looming pension cuts and the upcoming Brexit will also have a negative effect on Dutch economic growth, the OECD warned.

The bank also said that it was putting more focus on helping its customers become more sustainable and will increase the share of sustainable loans and investments from one fifth to one third by 2024. In the Netherlands, the bank will focus more on wealthy private individuals and medium-sized to large companies. In Northwest Europe, ABN Amro wants to distinguish itself in the field of sustainability and digitization.

“Today we announce we will be a personal bank in the digital age, serving clients where we have scale in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe,” ABN Amro CEO Robert Swaak said. Swaak previously announced that the bank was planning a change in course and that this could entail job cuts. At the time, about 800 jobs were set to be scrapped.

ABN Amro also announced that it is selling its head office on on Gustav Mahlerlaan in Amsterdam, with plans to rent part of it back. The office will be put on the market next year. Another ABN Amro office on Foppingastraat in the Dutch capital is being converted into a Paris Climate Agreement-proof “icon of sustainability”. That renovation should be done in 2025.

To test whether locals were interested in such a store, James Fresco distributed 20,000 leaflets in all surrounding neighborhoods. 56.4% of respondents said they would definitely shop at the Vegan Fresco, and 40.1% said they might.

Fresco will start a crowdfunding campaign to finance the supermarket, which was also announced in the leaflet. He also asked future shoppers to pass on their needs, wishes and expectations. “Together we’ll create a beautiful store,” Fresco said to the newspaper.

“We will open the doors in mid-January,” he said. “Until then we will continue to build on the store and see what our exact range will be.” The products will come from all over Europe.