According to local public broadcaster NHK, 25,630 new cases of COVID-19 in Japan were identified by 7 pm today (15th).
This is close to the 25,992 cases recorded on August 20, last year, when the highest number of confirmed cases was recorded in Japan.
The number of new daily confirmed cases in Japan was 174 on the 15th of last month, but it has increased about 147 times in one month.
As the Omicron mutation spread around the US base in Japan, the rate of infection spread rapidly increased.
According to the statistics of the Japanese Prime Minister's Office, those who have received the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Japan by the 13th of this month account for only 0.9% of the total population.
For the time being, the rate of infection spread is expected to continue to accelerate.
However, authorities have shortened the quarantine period for those who have been in close contact with the confirmed case as concerns have risen that it may make it difficult to maintain social functioning.
The Japanese government has implemented measures to reduce the quarantine required for those entering the country or region where Omicron has become mainstream from two weeks to ten days.
In addition, we decided to shorten the quarantine period for those who had close contact with an infected person of Omicron to 10 days, and notified local governments across the country of this policy yesterday.
In particular, for so-called essential personnel, such as the police and childcare and nursing care workers, it was decided to release the quarantine if the gene amplification test was negative on the 6th day.
The series of measures is a decision made based on the analysis of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan that the incubation period of omicron mutation is about three days, and it is extremely rare that it exceeds ten days.