This island finished its coronavirus lockdown too soon and became a lesson for the world

This island finished its coronavirus lockdown too soon and became
a lesson for the world

Japan's northern island of Hokkaido offers a serious lesson in the next phase of the war against Covid 19. It responded fast and contained early outbreak of the corona virus with a 3 weeks lockdown.

But when the governor lifted the ban, the second wave of illnesse intensified. Twenty-six days later, the island was forced again to impose lockdown.

A doctor who helped coordinate the government's response said he wanted to do things differently. Dr. Kiyoshi Nagase, chairman of the Hokkaido Medical Association, said, "Now I regret, we shouldn't have ended the first state of emergency."

Hokkaido's story is a test of realism for world leaders as they consider easing Coronavirus lockdown.

Experts say sanctions were lifted too quickly due to pressure from local businesses as well as its falling infection rate with a false sense of security.

The story of Hokkaido begins on January 31 at the annual snow festival in the island's capital, Sapporo. More than 2 million people attended the Winter Carnival to marvel at the giant ice sculptures and dine on crab hotpot. There were a lot of Chinese tourists on the Lunar New Year holiday.

On February 28, right one month after the first case was reported, there were 66 cases, the highest in any province in Japan and the highest incidences of infection, so the governor declared a state of emergency.

In Japan, the government cannot use the police or the army to enforce a lockdown, it can only ask for business closures in certain cases. One reason for this is that the post-World War II US-backed constitution has strong protections for civil liberties to prevent the return of fascism.

Yoshfumi Tokosumi, a former editor for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, said "Hokkaido residents are quite obedient, and it was still cold at that time of year, so people usually shut themselves off with hot water heaters anyway."

By mid-March, the health crisis was contained; new cases were in the same digits and some days were even zero but business complaints were on the rise.

In March, Hokkaido Governor Nomichi Suzuki was engaged considering the need to maintain the lockdown and endure further economic hardship, or take advantage of it, and risk health consequences. Suzuki is a popular figure, with approvals of about 90%. At 39, he is the youngest governor in the country.

On March 18, Suzuki convened his advisers and decided it was time to ease the ban. Dr Nagase, who helped coordinate the government's response, said that at the time, officials had only a limited understanding of the virus as how quickly it could spread. "Hokkaido was the first major epidemic here, so we were really working in the dark."

Without enough data, doctors based their recommendations on the idea that the corona virus spreads like influenza. Nagase says that he regrets not insisting on further investigations from the beginning.

The announcement lifting restrictions came just before a three-day weekend. Hokkaido residents spread into streets and lingered in cafes, celebrating the end of their weeks-long confinement. That likely caused the second wave of infections, says Nagase.

To make it more tense, people from other parts of Japan noticed that Hokkaido eased restrictions and began traveling there. Nagase says there were university students in some major cities who returned to Hokkaido after classes were canceled in April. There were employees of other large companies who usually start the job rotation at this time of year. When the state of emergency ended, the business sent a fresh crop of workers from Tokyo and Osaka to Hokkaido.

On April 14, Hokkaido was forced to declare a second state of emergency. There were 279 reported incidents on the island, an increase of 80% when the governor lifted the first lockdown less than a month ago. As of Wednesday, there were 495 cases in Hokkaido.

Nagase worried that Japan as a whole did not learn from Hokkaido's mistakes. "I'm on the board of the Japan Medical Association and we're pushing the central government for strong national action, but because of the economic situation, it's really hard to keep closed in Japan", he said.