Message by Governor Kuroiwa(英語)

Message by Governor Kuroiwa

The number of new cases of the novel coronavirus infection has remained low since lifting of the “declaration of intensive measures against BA. 5” on September 25.  However, it turned upward in late October and now we have over 5,000 new cases a day leading to increasing number of visitors to medical institutions.

Against this background, Kanagawa Prefectural Government today decided new categorization of infection level based on the national policy.  In the new scheme, infection level is divided into four categories.  The prefectural government judges which category the given infection situation falls under considering various circumstances, including new infection cases, burden on medical institutions such as outpatient/inpatient number and the state of socio economic activities, not merely by numerical value like the hospital bed occupancy rate.

Kanagawa’s current situation is Level II, the early stage of infection surge.  We are not planning to impose activity restrictions such as requests for shorter operation hours or avoiding outings like we did before, even when the burden on the medical institutions increases to the Level III category.  However, in this case, we will ask you to take stronger anti-virus measures, such as refraining from activities with high risks of infection.

We will have more opportunities to go out in the coming year-end and New Year holiday season, and it is feared that outbreak of COVID-19 and influenza takes place at the same time.  The infection situation in Kanagawa is Level II right now, but in order to prevent further increase of burden on medical institutions, I ask you again to fully practice basic anti-virus measures, such as wearing a mask in an appropriate manner and conducting thorough ventilation.

Please also consider receiving vaccinations for the currently prevailing Omicron variant and influenza as well.  I would also advise you to prepare antigen test kits (more than two kits per person), analgesic antipyretics and food just in case.

You can see the flow chart about the actions you should take when developing symptoms like a fever on the website of the prefectural government.  See this chart and take suitable actions for your condition, such as self-check, registration as a positive patient and use of online medical examination.

We would like to promote both anti-virus measures and socio economic activities in the society with corona virus in cooperation with the prefectural citizens and medical institutions.  Your understanding and cooperation are highly appreciated.

November 29, 2022
KUROIWA Yuji
Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture