While Wednesday marks one year since Japan downgraded COVID-19 to a lower-risk category of infectious diseases that includes seasonal flu, the country has experienced a higher-than-normal number of unusual outbreaks of other infectious diseases over the past year .
Infectious disease experts are urging people to implement basic infection prevention measures such as washing hands as their immunity to pathogens other than the coronavirus is believed to have been weakened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In line with the downgrade of COVID-19 status in May 2023, Japan stopped counting all COVID-19 cases nationwide and began receiving COVID-19 case reports from approximately 5,000 designated medical institutions.
