Less Than Two Weeks Before Olympics, Tokyo Covid Cases Hit Two-Month High



TOPLINE Tokyo reported more new cases of coronavirus on Saturday than anytime in nearly the last two months, two days after officials barred spectators from the Olympics, which is set to begin in less than two weeks.

KEY FACTS
950 cases were reported in the city Saturday, the highest since May 12.

Nationwide, new daily infections hit a peak in mid-May of a seven-day average of 51 per million people before dropping to 11 in June, but have risen slightly to an average of 14 new cases per million people daily over the past week.

That’s still far fewer than in the U.S., which has a seven-day average of 56 new cases per million people, or the world overall at 55, and more than 30 times fewer than the U.K.’s rate of 430 new cases per million people. pg

KEY BACKGROUND
Japan’s Olympic organizers said Thursday that no fans would be allowed at the games after the government declared a state of emergency for Tokyo, which is set to begin Monday. The moves reversed organizers’ announcement in June that Japanese spectators could attend events if they wore masks, had their temperatures checked and did not cheer loudly, while each event would be limited to half capacity for seating up to 10,000 people. Polls had shown through the spring that large majorities of people in Japan thought the games should be canceled or postponed, though one newspaper’s survey in early June, before the increase in cases, had found support for the games rising to half of residents.

BIG NUMBER
17%. That’s the share of Japanese who are fully vaccinated, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. has fully vaccinated 48% of its population.