Transition to Class 5 Chairman Omi "Corona continues to change and caution is necessary"

Shigeru Omi, chairman of the government's subcommittee, said at a press conference held on the evening of the 27th that everyone in the subcommittee agreed with the government's policy of shifting the status of the new coronavirus to "5" in May under the Infectious Diseases Act. He said, ``A considerable number of attendees expressed the opinion that the new coronavirus continues to change and that caution is necessary.''

“In the case of a medical emergency, it is of course necessary to review the response.”

On top of that, Chairman Omi said, ``If a mutation occurs that greatly enhances pathogenicity, or if a situation occurs in which even if it is the same Omicron strain, a medical emergency occurs no matter how hard you try, it is natural to review the response. I think it will be necessary.It is important to have a system that can respond immediately in the worst case as a crisis management response."

Infection control "From now on, individuals and groups will make choices independently"

Regarding future infection control measures, he said, ``Until now, we have responded to uniform requests from the national and local governments, but from now on, individuals and groups will be able to make independent choices according to risk. In addition to that, it is necessary to give educational consideration to people who are likely to become seriously ill, people who do not want to be infected even if they are healthy, as well as the elderly and small children. He also explained that everyone agreed that it is important not to leave the responsibility of measures, such as creating an environment, solely to individuals.

"I want to show the way of thinking that can be used as a basis for judgment as an expert."

On top of that, regarding the future, ``I want you to consider the risk of infection, the status of infection, and the impact of an infection on the people in the place, rather than saying that consideration is necessary and that everything should be decided by the individual. , The risk is different if there are people in the group who are likely to become seriously ill, and if there are only people who are always together.As an expert, I would like to summarize the specifics of the way of thinking that can be used as a basis for such judgments." He expressed his thoughts on summarizing the responses in specific situations that will be useful as a reference for infection control.