Kitahara Kanako, Nishikawa Yoshihiro, Yokoyama Hirokazu, Kikuchi Yoshinobu, Sakoi Masami
Office for COVID-19 and Other Emerging Infectious Disease Control, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan.
Glob Health Med. 2023 Apr 30;5(2):70-74. doi: 10.35772/ghm.2023.01023.
Japan's responses to COVID-19 have been conducted based on the Act on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Medical Care for Patients with Infectious Diseases (the Infectious Diseases Control Law) and the Act on Special Measures against Novel Influenza, . (the Act on Special Measures), as COVID-19 is classified as the category of "the Novel Influenza ." under the Infectious Diseases Control Law. The government's Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters decided to reclassify COVID-19 as a Category V infectious disease under the Infectious Diseases Control Law in May 2023 since the disease has become less lethal. Accordingly, the countermeasures such as surveillance and medical care are going to be reviewed, and COVID-19 prevention actions will depend on personal choices (Prior to the review in May, mask usage will be changed from 13 March). However, this does not mean that infection control measures are no longer necessary; it is recommended that such measures be taken in certain settings in order to prevent the elderly and those who at a high risk of severe illness from being infected, even after the disease is classified as Category V.
日本对新冠疫情的应对是依据《传染病预防及感染症患者医疗法》（《传染病控制法》）以及《新型流感特别措施法》（《特别措施法》）开展的，因为新冠疫情在《传染病控制法》中被归类为“新型流感”类别。由于新冠病毒致死率降低，政府的新型冠状病毒应对总部于2023年5月决定将新冠重新归类为《传染病控制法》下的V类传染病。相应地，监测和医疗等应对措施将进行审查，新冠预防行动将取决于个人选择（在5月审查之前，3月13日起口罩使用规定将有所变化）。然而，这并不意味着感染控制措施不再必要；即使在该疾病被归类为V类之后，建议在某些场所采取此类措施，以防止老年人和重症高风险人群感染。
