State of emergency

Prime Minister Abe officially called a State of Emergency in 7 prefectures today until May 6.  He did not declare a nationwide State of Emergency since the influx of cases is concentrated in these 7 prefectures - Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo, Osaka, and Fukuoka.

The governement selected these prefectures based on the rate of new infections and the percentage of unknown sources (they don't know where they caught the virus).  For example, in the last 5 days, the number of people diagnosed in Tokyo prefecture has doubled, resulting in over 1,000 cases, with 68% having unknown sources.

Prime Minister Abe emphasized that this is not a lock down, but still encouraged people to change their behavior, starting with listening to the prefectural governmental officials.  Reducing person to person contact is key.  Prime Minister Abe detailed requests for businesses to increase efforts to either have employees work from home, or at least institute shifts so less people are in the office at any one time.  He also had a special plea for young people to stay at home and cooperate with social distancing.

We've been expecting this for a while now, but it is still scary and hard to hear.  The words of Prime Minister Abe were stoic, yet comforting.  He reminded the people that we have overcome very terrifying situations in the past by working together and supporting one another.  While I listened to a translation of his speech on NHK (a national public television station), and not his original voice, I found his words to be reassuring.

Our family has been practicing social distancing for a weeks now.  We have heavily weighed each outing, and made sure to be very diligent in washing our hands and not touching our faces.  Now, we will be even more prudent.