Japan

Japan plans to collect data from people who become infected with the novel coronavirus even after they receive vaccinations to assess how vaccines may help prevent the spread of the virus, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

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Suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, a survey found.

The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to the study by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

“Unlike normal economic circumstances, this pandemic disproportionately affects the psychological health of children, adolescents and females (especially housewives),” the authors wrote in the study published on Friday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

The early decline in suicides was affected by such factors as government subsidies, reduced working hours and school closure, the study found.

But the decline reversed — with the suicide rate jumping 37% for women, about five times the increase among men — as the prolonged pandemic hurt industries where women predominate, increasing the burden on working mothers, while domestic violence increased, the report said.

The study, based on health ministry data from November 2016 to last October, found the child suicide rate spiked 49% in the second wave, corresponding to the period after a nationwide school closure.

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The death of a Montreal Inuit man is being investigated after his body was discovered in a portable toilet just 25 metres from the homeless shelter he used to frequent.

The La Porte Ouvert shelter, which translates literally to “the Open Door shelter,” normally operates 24 hours a day, but was closed due to “plumbing problems and a major COVID-19 outbreak,” reports CBC Radio-Canada.

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China’s economy exceeded its pre-pandemic growth rates in the fourth quarter, propelling it to a stronger-than-expected expansion of 2.3% for the full year and making it the only major one to avoid contraction in 2020.

Gross domestic product climbed 6.5% in the final quarter from a year earlier, fueled by industrial output, the statistics bureau said Monday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted 6.2% growth for the quarter and 2.1% for the full year.

“China has more than returned to trend growth,” said Raymond Yeung, chief economist for Greater China at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. The strong rebound means authorities can “prioritize structural reforms rather than economic reflation” in 2021, he said.