Japan to End Detailed Reporting on Every COVID Case Nationwide

Tokyo, Aug. 24 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is planning to end detailed reporting on every COVID-19 case throughout the country as early as mid-September, government sources said Friday.

The government will require only cases involving people with higher risks of developing severe symptoms to be reported in detail.

Only on Wednesday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that prefectural governments would be allowed to decide whether to adopt the narrower scope for detailed reporting, on condition that they keep counting the daily number of new cases.

Some prefectures including Miyagi, Ibaraki and Tottori have decided to adopt the narrower reporting scope, in hopes to reduce burdens on medical institutions and local authorities amid the seventh wave of COVID-19 infections in Japan.

However, many prefectural governors criticized Kishida’s policy of leaving the decision up to prefectural governments, and called for unifying reporting rules across the country.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]