Expert: Over 8 Mil. Could Get Covid - 19 In Japan's 8th Wave
A Japanese professor estimates that more than 8 million people could be infected with the coronavirus in Japan by the end of February in a possible eighth wave of infections.
Kyoto University Professor Nishiura Hiroshi reported the result of a simulation at a meeting of the health ministry's expert panel on Wednesday.
Nishiura said that daily cases could hit nearly 200,000 nationwide, assuming that infections spread at a slightly slower pace than in Tokyo in July, when the seventh wave began.
He estimated that about 8.44 million people could be infected from October 10 through February 28, and that about 320,000 people could be hospitalized.
Nishiura said infections could drop 27 percent to about 6.16 million if the inoculation rate of the fourth vaccine shot reaches the same rate as that of the third jab in the next four months. He added that the total number of hospitalized people could be reduced 31 percent to about 220,000.
During the seventh wave of infections, about 12 million people were infected from July through September. The death toll during the period was the largest since the pandemic began.
Nishiura said that the spread of infections in the future will depend on whether new variants of the virus will emerge and whether people will continue to wear masks.
He predicted that raising the vaccine inoculation rate swiftly and drastically could lead to a smaller eighth wave of infections.