Japan becomes first major country to officially recognize that Covid poses the same threat as the flu – in a landmark pandemic moment

Japan will see Covid as the equivalent of seasonal flu – a sign of changing attitudes towards the pandemic.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Friday that Covid will be reclassified from its current level two to disease category five.

In practice, this would omit a recommendation to wear masks in indoor public areas and end the need for self-isolation for infected individuals and close contacts.

But symbolically, it shows how major countries are finally learning to live with Covid, rather than treating it as an immediate public health emergency.

The new classification in Japan – which will take effect in the spring – recommends that patients only wear masks indoors if they are symptomatic – in contrast to the current general recommendation for everyone.

Mask requirements for the coronavirus were last revised in May when the government stopped encouraging people to wear masks outdoors.

Unlike in the UK and US, masks are more culturally accepted in Asia, so many Japanese people still wear coverings indoors and outdoors.

“As we try to restore the lifestyle of normal Japan, we want to postpone various measures step by step,” Kishida said.

“To return to our normal everyday life in Japan while taking measures to adapt to life with the coronavirus, we will consider concrete measures to gradually move to the next step,” he added.

The current Class 2 classification of the disease places Covid under the same criteria as tuberculosis and SARS.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a news conference at the Willard Hotel on January 14, 2023 in Washington, DC

The last days of Covid?

Early data suggests the virus killed 267,000 Americans last year, down 44% from 2021.

With the onset of COVID-19, Japan implemented the three Cs to prevent the spread of the disease: confined spaces, crowded places, and close contact systems.

But a relegation to disease category five would end the rules once and for all.

Some more skeptical experts in Japan have questioned the timing of the announcement as the number of Covid cases rises again.

The current total number of new cases per day in Japan is 338 per 100,000 people, a figure that is 40 percent higher than the previous week.

“It is too early to say whether the current wave of infections has peaked,” Takaji Wakita, director-general of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, told a panel session at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Tokyo said. 1. 17

There has also been a rise in deaths linked to an increase in infections among the elderly in recent weeks. Japan had 500 deaths last Saturday.

“People aged 80 and over account for a larger proportion of those infected compared to last summer,” said Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare.