Japan to drop COVID border measures from Saturday
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Starting on Saturday, passengers arriving in Japan will no longer be required to submit proof of vaccination or negative test results, according to media reports, as the country braces for an influx of travelers during the Golden Week holidays.
Currently, all incoming passengers — including Japanese nationals and foreign residents — are required to present proof that they have received at least three COVID-19 vaccine shots or have tested negative for the virus within 72 hours before departure.
The government had previously said it planned to end the border measures on May 8, when the category for COVID-19 under the Infectious Disease Law will be downgraded from one similar to Class 2 to Class 5, which is on par with seasonal influenza.
But government officials are now planning to move the schedule forward and drop the requirement from Saturday, according to Kyodo News. Arrivals who exhibit COVID-like symptoms may reportedly be asked to undergo voluntary testing at some airports.
During the upcoming holidays, domestic and international travel is expected to rebound and approach pre-COVID levels, a trend that will continue through the summer, according to tourism projections released by the Nomura Research Institute.
The number of incoming travelers in March stood at 1.82 million people, up by more than 340,000 people from February — though not as high as 2.76 million recorded in March 2019 before the pandemic — despite the fact that the Chinese government has yet to approve group tours to Japan.
As for domestic travel, the Tourism Agency announced last week that from May 8, it will remove requirements for vaccine certificates and pre-travel PCR testing for users of government-subsidized travel campaigns.
Also on Thursday, a panel of experts within the health ministry officially approved the classification change to take place on May 8, which means the government will soon scrap an array of special measures introduced over the course of the pandemic.
The experts based their decision on the currently low number of newly infected people, as cases peaked in January at over 240,000 during the nation’s eighth wave.
The fact that Japan’s dominant strain of coronavirus remains the relatively mild omicron variant is another element that factored into their decision, despite it being more transmissible than previous variants such as alpha and delta.
Recent weeks have seen an increase in the ratio of people found with XBB1.5 and XBB1.9, both part of the omicron family. While both virus types are known to be good at escaping immunity gained through past infection and vaccination, they are not found to be more pathogenic than previous omicron subvariants, according to the panel.
Following the meeting, health minister Katsunobu Kato said that May 8 will mark a turning point in Japan’s coronavirus response.
“From May 8, the government will no longer ask people to refrain from going out or require them to be hospitalized under the law when they test positive for COVID-19,” Kato told reporters. “Anti-infection measures will be left up to individuals, though the government will continue to provide some reference information.”
Following the downgrade, COVID-19 will be treated much like other diseases, and regular hospitals and clinics will start to accept patients, the ministry said, noting that 8,400 hospitals, or around 90%, will be ready to accept up to 58,000 inpatients, as opposed to 53,000 people hospitalized during past peaks of COVID-19 waves.
source: Japan Times
