Tokyo: Kovid-19 has created havoc all over the world. The number of people admitted to hospitals in China and Japan is increasing day by day. Having said that, Japan today (January 6) reported 456 Covid-related deaths, the highest ever as the country shows no signs of stopping the coronavirus that has killed thousands in just a span of a month Is. There were concerns that the Covid infection and death toll would only increase with the New Year festivities. The country reported 245,542 coronavirus cases, up 18,638 from Thursday and Tokyo reported 20,720 new cases, down 15, Japan reported on January 6.
Health officials said the number of infected people hospitalized with severe symptoms in Tokyo stood at 53, up four from Thursday. The nationwide figure was 659, up nine from Thursday. In December 2022, Japan recorded a record 7,688 deaths due to Covid, surpassing the earlier monthly high of 7,329 recorded in August during the previous coronavirus wave. According to Mainichi Japan, the death toll has risen sharply since November with the start of the eighth wave.
While the severity rate has dropped with the Omicron strain of the coronavirus, the increased transmissibility of the variant means infections have increased by orders of magnitude, the report noted.
The death toll from COVID-19 in Japan in the last three months is almost 16 times higher than the same period last year. In the four-month period from August 31 to December 27 this year, people in their 80s represented 40.8 per cent of the deaths.
“Those in their 90s and over accounted for 34.7 percent and those in their 70s accounted for 17 percent. Overall, people in these three age groups accounted for 92.4 percent of deaths,” the report noted.
(With inputs from IANS)