TOKYO, Feb 10 (NNN-NHK) – The Tokyo metropolitan government said, elderly people are contracting COVID-19 at an “unprecedented” rate as the Omicron variant runs rampant across Japan.
Patients aged 65 or above comprised 8.5 percent of the 127,357 new infections reported in Tokyo for the week, according to official figures.
For those seven days, the total number of elderly people carrying the virus was 2.1 times higher than that of the entire month of Aug, when Japan was grappling with its fifth wave of infections, the metropolitan government said.
The number of infected elderly patients in the same week was also 1.4 times higher, compared to the previous week and three times higher than the week before, it added.
As 12,211 new cases were confirmed on Monday, the highest for any Monday in the capital, and 68,000 new daily cases were reported nationwide, the infections barely showed any sign of letting up. Those aged over 70 are the majority of those being hospitalised with serious symptoms.
Last Friday, Takaji Wakita, who headed a group of experts advising the Japanese Health Ministry on its pandemic response, urged the government to focus on reducing the infection rate among both the elderly and children.
“The number of cases is starting to decline among young generations, but unless we see a downtrend among children and elderly people, the overall figures will not decline,” Wakita said.– NNN-NHK
