With Miyakojima becoming one of the world’s worst hot zones of the coronavirus, mayor pleads with people “do not come here”
Miyakojima Mayor Kazuyuki Zakimi at a press conference, imploring tourists and those looking to come home to not come to the island – August 18 Miyakojima City Hall
August 19, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo
Miyakojima Mayor Kazuyuki Zakimi held a press conference at the Miyakojima City Hall August 18, where he warned both tourists and people looking to return home to the island that the area had become “one of the world’s worst hot zones” of COVID-19, strongly requesting that they not come to the island.
According to sources such as city officials, from the start of August through the 18th, there have been 440 confirmed cases. Being “in danger of the healthcare system collapsing,” the cases are nearly double the number confirmed during the third wave of the disease back in January. The Miyako Prefectural Hospital stopped accepting general outpatients August 16, and the healthcare system as a whole is under stress.
In the past week, the new confirmed cases per 100,000 people was at 444.85, 1.5 times Okinawa (310.32) which is the worst for a prefecture in Japan, and nearly double the rate in Tokyo (226.83). It is higher than Malaysia (403.4), where their government’s cabinet resigned en masse over their failed coronavirus policies.
According to Miyakojima, infections are high among young adults in their 20’s and 30’s who work in the hospitality, food, or construction industry. Zakimi warned, “infections from restaurants who are not honoring the ban on serving alcoholic beverages, and tourism areas have put us in a dire situation.”
He added, “One of the sources of infections are people carrying the virus who come to the island from mainland Japan.”
(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)
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