滝本 匠 
June 9, 2022 Ryukyu Shimpo
The Okinawa Coronavirus Taskforce Committee convened on June 9, where they made the decision to rescind the coronavirus warning for Okinawa’s main island and the Miyako region. The warning had been in effect since May 13. They explained that the hospital bed occupancy rate in Okinawa, which in mid-May had reached nearly 60% and posed a problem for managing hospitalizations, had seen notable improvements. In order to prevent strain on healthcare moving forward, the prefecture will be distributing home testing kits to families with school-aged children so that they can test at home if people start showing symptoms.
Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki held a press conference after the meeting, where he said he was grateful for the continued cooperation of Okinawa’s residents, and that “They would be moving forward with the Okinawa Prefectural Junior High Sports Festival in earnest. For the adults as well as the children, please do not congregate in large numbers during the event, and please travel directly to the event and then return directly home,” noting that they would continue to observe all the existing disease prevention measures.
During the bout of increased cases in Okinawa in May, there was a sharp increase of young children visiting doctors, which put a strain on the health care system and delayed the ability to conduct PCR testing at schools. By distributing home test kits for free, Okinawa is hoping to prevent an influx of children gathering at medical facilities.
According to Okinawa Prefecture, the home testing kits will become available from a special website starting June 13, and that they are hoping to provide kits to 100-400 households per day. They plan on distributing 80,000 kits from their reserves, and plan to deliver the kits either the day of or the day after they are requested. For the outlying islands, they are asking town halls to continue managing a stockpile of tests.
(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)
