Japan sees record high number of coronavirus cases As of Wednesday, more than 40 thousand people were found, while children under 10 were found to have higher omikron infections.
Today (21 Jan. 20) Japan found a new case of COVID-19. soaring to a record high As of Wednesday, more than 40 thousand people were found, while children under 10 were found to be infected with omikron at a high rate. as well as family members also reported more infections. But reports say that about 90% of these children are infected. all show no symptoms or have only mild symptoms But local communities and experts are concerned about the risk that these children may carry the infection back to older people at home. that can cause severe symptoms
Hosaka Kodomo, Director of the Bankyo Ward Clinic In Tokyo, the number of pediatric cases has been rising since last week. Since the number of infections in Japan has started to rise again.. But most of the infected children under the age of 10 have mild symptoms. with only a fever and only nasal congestion
Not only this, it also found that about half of the new cases this week. It is a group of people aged 20-30 years and under 10 years, approximately 6%.
Compared to the patient’s age the previous week, children under 10 had an increase of 6.3 times, while those aged 20-30 had a 3.8-fold increase, and pediatric patients increased 6.3 times. It also caused the need to close more kindergartens.
experts point out delayed vaccination cause of child sickness
Experts say vaccinations that are not yet covered It is one of the reasons for the number of infections in children. including the easy outbreak of the Omikron mutant virus This makes it difficult to prevent household infections.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said that the infection in this family This accounts for up to half of the number of confirmed cases. Between 45-10 January last which is more than a workplace infection or other places
“We suspect that The first infection occurred among young people in their 20s and 30s, who went to Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, remembering to infect children at home and when they returned to school. As the virus continues to infect others,” said Professor Toshio Takatorike, a health expert at Kansai University.
Japan approves Pfizer for children 5-11 years old
from the soaring child infection causing the Japanese Ministry of Health to announce the approval of the vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech It’s an urgent case for children aged 5-11 today, with the government preparing to start injections in March. due to the problem of delayed vaccine delivery
This is Japan’s first vaccine approval for children under 12. It came after consensus between the Ministry of Health and experts. that children of this age can be vaccinated
The Moderna vaccine is approved for use in children 12 years of age and older, while AstraZenece is approved for use in people 40 and older.
In clinical trials of nearly 2,300 children aged 5-11 years in the United States and other countries, only one-third the usual dose of the Pfizer vaccine was used. It was found to be up to 90.7% effective against infection, even with delta mutant viruses. Including omikron that is easy to infect as well.
from Japanese law Children under 15 years of age need a parent’s written approval for vaccination. But some parents are still concerned about the side effects of the vaccine. In the US, more than 8 million doses of Pfizer have been given to children 5-11 years old (as of the end of December). Of the more than 41,000 people, 10% were unable to attend school due to adverse events, while about 1% had side effects. need to be treated
Picture from: AFP
