JAPAN

Japan steps into post-pandemic phase with scrapping of COVID measures

The Asakusa district in Tokyo on April 29. With the change to COVID-19's classification, the government will lose the legal basis to declare a state of emergency or quasi-state of emergency, and will not ask infected people or their close contacts to restrict their movements. | KYODO

By Tomoko Otake
staff writer

May 7, 2023

Japan entered its post-pandemic phase Monday, officially downgrading COVID-19 to a status on par with seasonal flu and doing away with a range of coronavirus measures.

The plan to reclassify the disease from one similar to Class 2, used for severe infectious diseases such as SARS and tuberculosis, to Class 5 under the Infectious Diseases Control Law was announced in January. The move follows the easing of mask guidance in March, after which decisions on both indoor and outdoor masking have been largely left up to individuals.

Japan steps into post-pandemic phase with scrapping of COVID measures

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