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It has been a week since I declared a State of Emergency for Iwate.
Seeing that the flow of people in the Odori Street Area has decreased from last year and other measures being taken, I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone for doing their best to stay safe

The number of Iwate’s new cases per 100,000 people within the last week has increased from 16.5 to 25.2 cases today on August 19 since the day I declared a State of Emergency on the 12th, thus implying that the infection rate is rapidly increasing.

The Delta variant has mostly replaced the other variants for Iwate’s infection cases. The Delta variant is known for its higher infection rates, even with minimal contact. It’s important that we be vigilant to “not bring the virus in or out of our homes.”

Once again, I would like to ask all residents to reduce contact with others as much as possible.

As of today, August 19, the hospital bed capacity for infected patients is at 72%. For Iwate, we conduct CT scans and blood tests on infected patients and, under doctor’s diagnosis, provide personal care for each person with symptoms or with a risk of becoming severe. In principle, our policy is to not make patients recuperate at home, therefore we are increasing more accommodation facilities and others to protect the lives and health of each patient.

We can expect to see more strain being put on our medical services as the rate of infection spreads out further after today. Therefore, we will be making preparations to make a formal request to the national government to add Iwate Prefecture as one of the manbo designated areas so that we can implement more serious movement restrictive measures once the request is approved.

In order to shift the number of new cases from increasing to decreasing, cooperation from every one of us is extremely important. I would like to implore that you continue to reduce the number of contacts with others, avoid going out for non-essential and non-urgent reasons, and thoroughly practice preventative measures to prevent an increase of new case numbers.

A new school term will begin starting from this week and next week. Many students will be returning to their school life, so please make sure to double check your school’s safety measures, including club activities, and be careful in your day-to-day life.