May 08 (Nikkei) - Workplaces and schools are emerging as hot spots for infection in Japan's latest wave of COVID-19 cases, moving beyond the hospitals and senior care facilities that had been the main sources of spread.
Not even the health ministry is immune. An outbreak that infected at least 29 was traced to a widely attended late-night party in late March that involved plenty of sharing of food and drinks. The event was connected to the ministry's Health and Welfare Bureau for the Elderly. The coronavirus is believed to have entered the bureau as early as midmonth and to have spread through shared spaces and equipment, such as restrooms, drinking fountains and telephones.
The ministry logged 463 outbreaks of at least five people not tied to households from April 1 to April 23, and 96 of these were linked to workplaces -- more than any other category. This is roughly double the share in January, the month with the largest number of coronavirus clusters.
Meetings can be a source of infections, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. It notes a case in which a woman in her 50s attended a meeting the day before she showed symptoms. Three people developed the disease within four days after the meeting and three more within seven to 12 days. An additional two more people who did not participate in the meeting were connected with the infection, resulting in total of nine people whoeventually became ill because of the event.
The trend raises questions about the effectiveness of Japan's efforts to curb the virus through steps like the state of emergency in Tokyo and other prefectures, which was extended Friday through the end of May. Many members of the public are letting their guard down as the pandemic and emergency declarations become part of their everyday lives.
Compounding the problem are highly contagious variants, against which the usual defenses may prove less effective.
As variants gain a foothold and cases skew younger, more outbreaks are occurring in settings once considered relatively safe. Schools and educational facilities accounted for 13% of clusters in April -- a larger share than in previous waves -- with about half of these tied to day care and similar sites for young children.
School clubs and athletics pose a particular problem, such as with one outbreak linked to a high school girls volleyball team in Kochi Prefecture.
Younger people also appear more at risk of serious illness than with the standard strain. In Osaka, where variants are raging, about one-third of severely ill patients between March 1 and May 2 were 50 or younger -- nearly double the proportion during the previous wave from October to February.
