Japan to consider downgrading COVID-19 to less serious infectious
disease
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[January 20, 2023]
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will consider revising COVID-19 measures
as early as this spring, downgrading the disease to a less serious
category and relaxing guidance that people wear masks in public indoor
places, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday.
Speaking to media after meeting with relevant ministers, Kishida said he
had instructed them to consider the specific requirements for a
reclassification that would put COVID-19 in the same category as
seasonal flu.
"As we try to restore the lifestyles of a normal Japan, we would like to
shift various measures step by step," Kishida told reporters.
A classification downgrade to disease category five from the current
category two would end an isolation requirement for infected people and
their close contacts.
In a separate measure foreshadowed by Kishida, the government would also
advise only patients with symptoms to wear masks in indoor public
places, whereas currently it urges everyone to do so.
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![](../images/012023PIX/health17.jpg)
People wearing protective masks amid the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, make their way in Tokyo,
Japan, July 25, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/20/images/ads/current/rohlfs_quarter_LUAL_2022.png) The government last revised
coronavirus measures in May. It said then that people no longer had
to wear masks when outside as long as appropriate social distance
was maintained. Even so, the vast majority of people in Japan are
still wearing masks in public, both outdoors and indoors.
(Reporting by Mariko Katsumura; Editing by Christopher Cushing and
Bradley Perrett)
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