The UK and Japan Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak, Essay Example

According to Wenham (2020), the United Kingdom remains at the helm of being a world leader when it comes to both control and prevention of highly versatile diseases. Besides, Japan is also not left out in this journey to develop positive innovative solutions meant to rebuild the health services sector and government policies to reduce the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic. Moreover, studies by (Sakamoto 2021) have indicated that Japan initiated social policies and regulations to fight against the COVID 10 pandemic, famously known as the Japan COVID-19 strategies. The measures were mainly enacted to reduce the over-concentration of the COVID-19 infections in specific areas and ensure that there was personal responsibility from everyone regarding the containment of the virus. Thus, the social and economic aspects have played a huge role in mitigating both the short and long-term effects of COVID 19 in Japan and the United Kingdom.

Wenham (2020) states that the United Kingdom has long applied the “Health in Global” plan, which has always been key in preventing global pandemics. However, the policy received a backlash from the Labour Party leaders based on the overall preparedness in the face of the pandemic. However, other Western nations like Germany, France and Italy adore the policy and respond to various contagious diseases. However, there is some conflict between the U.K prime minister and other leaders due to the ever-rising cases and numbers of those affected by the pandemic.

Consequently, Shigemura & Kurosawa (2020) suggest that Japan implemented various economic policies during the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the pandemic resulted in the suspension of learning institutions and other public places like hotels and workplaces. In this case, many people were retrenched, with many organizations being forced to shut down. Therefore, the country enacted some economic policies like the provision of hardship funds by the government and other financial organizations to those affected to finance their economic activities. However, Nicola et al. (2020) state that the pandemic had a great impact on the economy of Japan. For example, the virus destabilized the economic status of Japan by negatively influencing its liquidity position and the sustainability of both Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Furthermore, the method used in the clustering of the COVID 19 zones applied the 3C’s: closed spaces, close-contact, and crowded settings. That ensured that the people always stayed in heavily ventilated and open spaces and maintaining social distance. Additionally, the Japanese government was supposed to encourage and cement the required measures and policies like disinfectants, washing hands and wearing masks. That ensured that the general public was compliant with the rule and norms supposed to reduce the effects of the pandemic.

Discussion

Shimizu et al. (2020) suggest that Japan’s COVID-19 strategy to curtail cluster formation of COVID 19 infection areas yielded several results. For example, they discovered that at least 80% of the individuals with the virus did not pass it to the others. For example, In February 2020 alone, a minimum of 20% only managed to infect others with the COVID 19 virus. Therefore, the Japanese government could prevent and control the spread of the virus at the expense of concentrating on the rising cases (Inai, 2021). On the other hand, the United Kingdom lacked a well-established strategy as compared to Japan in the early stages of the pandemic. A steady increase in the cases of COVID 19 led to the announcement of a national lockdown, which also resulted in chaos in terms of the nation’s international leadership in terms of health security matters. Evidence from the findings indicates that the nation experienced about 127,000 deaths, 4 million recovered and a steep increase ranging at a tally of about 4 million. Therefore, the impacts of COVID 19 were tremendous on the economy of the united Kingdom. Such results are attributed to the ignorance of the U.K government at the beginning of the pandemic (Anayi et al., 2021). Even though the nation tried to initiate self-isolation and social distance policies meant to combat the infection effectively, the number of cases has continued to skyrocket.

The pandemic had a very big influence in Japan. For example, the COVID-19 has contributed to the suspension of social and public places such as restaurants and learning institutions, contributing to firms gaining less profit and reduced market sales of their different commodities and services offered. Since the pandemic affected the economic stability of Japan, the country enacted policies to offer financial support to SME’s and stabilize their liquidity position. Japan is not only an exception but other nations have also been hit, leading to massive loss of jobs. The loss of employees had adverse effects on the economy since the G.D.P of the nation does not grow (Wright et al., 2020). The social distance measures have also affected the interaction of people since there are no gatherings and shaking hands.

Another possible finding is that the lockdown in the United Kingdom was not that effective since the national lockdown came into practice when the pandemic had already affected many individuals. The successive regime was also a big contributor to hindering the application of the WHO procedures and policies to control the pandemic. However, in Japan, the case was different in that the lockdown and the other measures effectively managed to control the pandemic (Shigemura et al., 2020). The medical sector was financed with enough funds to purchase PPE’s and other medical equipment meant to curtail the spread of the infection.