YouTuber reveals what it\u2019s like living in Japan amid coronavirus crisis Instagram: @heyitssharla \/ UnsplashCanadian-born YouTuber Sharla \u2018Sharmander\u2019 revealed what it\u2019s like living in Japan during the outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus, and the ongoing panic amongst citizens and residents. The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has been one of the top subjects in mainstream media over the last few weeks over fears it\u2019s spreading worldwide after originating in China in late 2019. Over 90,000 cases have been confirmed across the world, which in turn has generated a mass-hysteria. In Japan, only a small number of people have been confirmed to have contracted the virus at the time of writing, but panic has set in and residents are making preparations to protect themselves from it at all costs. YouTuber Sharmander, a Canadian who resides in Northern Japan, has revealed just how much it\u2019s impacting daily life in the country. https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BypYgmgFcaR\/ In a March 2 upload, Sharla started the video by driving to the grocery store with her friend Mark, who had come home from school earlier than planned due to the country closing them early after the outbreak. \u201cHe is officially on spring vacation, the school year in Japan usually ends mid-March, but because of the virus they have closed the schools starting now, two weeks early\u2026So everybody\u2019s kind of panicking because parents are having trouble finding people to take care of their kids,\u201d she began. The YouTuber then talked about how there\u2019s a shortage of everyday essentials such as toilet paper. \u201cUp until a couple of days ago, things were just normal, nobody was really panicking\u2026When the Prime Minister announced that the schools would be closing, people kinda started to panic,\u201d she said. \u201cSomeone said there was going to be a lack of toilet paper in Japan because [it] was being manufactured in China. It was a complete lie, but it spread throughout Japan\u2026and now we can\u2019t get toilet paper because people have been hoarding it all!\u201d \u201cEverything is gone from the grocery store, Mark\u2019s gonna drive us out to a bigger grocery store today and we\u2019re gonna see if they have any stock left but my local one didn\u2019t have anything, they haven\u2019t for the past three days now,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s not just toilet paper, you can\u2019t buy masks, you can\u2019t buy hand sanitizer, bread\u2026 Bread is completely gone, rice\u2026 Like, all the essentials, people are just stocking up on and there\u2019s just not enough for everybody.\u201d Sharla then explained why she feels as though the approximately 200 confirmed cases of the virus is an understatement. \u201cAs for the number of cases in Japan, there really aren\u2019t that many that have been officially reported\u2026 But I have a feeling that the numbers are so low because the government refuses to test people!\u201d she said. \u201cLike, people will go in with a high fever and lots of the symptoms, and they\u2019ll question you and ask if you\u2019ve directly been to Wuhan or if you\u2019ve been in direct contact with somebody who has the virus, and if you say that, they\u2019ll be like \u2018Oh, we won\u2019t test you then.’\u201d \u201cYou could have easily just picked it up on public transportation, but the criteria for testing here are so strict that they\u2019re not testing anybody and it\u2019s really crazy, even for old people they say that you have to have a fever for two days straight before they will consider testing you,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really dangerous because health officials were saying that if an elderly person has the virus long enough that they\u2019ve had a fever for two straight days, they\u2019re already so bad that they might not be able to heal from it!\u201d The Canadian stated that she was \u201cpretty disappointed\u201d in how the country has been handling the way they\u2019ve been testing people, and that it might be because they don\u2019t want to cancel the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. \u201cI\u2019m pretty disappointed in the way that Japan is dealing with it, it\u2019s quite lame. I have a feeling it\u2019s because they don\u2019t want the numbers to rise because then the Olympics would be canceled. It would be great to know exactly what\u2019s going on and what the actual numbers are.\u201d The World Health Organization is advising the public to wash their hands frequently with soap and water or anti-bacterial hand sanitizer, to avoid touching the nose, eyes and mouth, and cover the mouth when coughing or sneezing. They also advise people stay at least three feet (one metre) away from anyone who you suspect could be sick \u2013 a big reason why masks are sold out absolutely everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YouTuber reveals what it\u2019s like living in Japan amid coronavirus crisis Instagram: @heyitssharla \/ UnsplashCanadian-born YouTuber Sharla \u2018Sharmander\u2019 revealed what it\u2019s like living in Japan during the outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus, and the ongoing panic amongst citizens and residents. The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has been one of the top subjects in mainstream […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}