....I’ve helped make the case before that a strong, fast, federal effort to speed the distribution of testing, protective gear, intensive care equipment and training, to coordinate and plan a national response, could sharply limit the spread of Covid-19.

The [now dangerously incompetent] federal government has done little, but if it acts now a similarly strong national response may allow America to open up sooner — in June, not by Easter — and do it more safely. Here’s how:

Stop the virus. A nationwide shelter-in-place or quarantine should take place for the next eight to 10 weeks. According to Chinese data, this would mean the number of Covid-19 cases would peak in four weeks or so and then decline over the next four to six weeks. So, as hard as it will be, everybody but crucial workers will have to remain inside until roughly June 1st.

Make reasonable exceptions. In counties with few cases of Covid-19 and the ability to test and trace infected people’s contacts, normal life could go on as long as people believed to be infected are quarantined and those who are known to be infected are rapidly isolated.

Mobilize public health resources. During the eight weeks of shelter-in-place, the federal government needs to produce and distribute enough tests so state and local health officials can check as many people as possible, even those without symptoms, and determine the true extent of infections. We should also push the Food and Drug Administration for rapid approval of blood tests to determine who has antibodies to coronavirus, and is thus immune, and then deploy millions of them.

State and local health department then need to deploy thousands of teams to trace contacts of all new Covid-19 cases using cellphone data, social media data, and data from thermometer tests and the like. We also need to get infected people to inform their own contacts. It will be easier to lift the national quarantine if we isolate new cases, find and test all their contacts, and isolate any of them who may be infected....

....In a signing statement released hours after Mr. Trump signed the bill in a televised ceremony in the Oval Office, the president suggested he had the power to decide what information a newly created inspector general intended to monitor the fund could share with Congress.

Under the law, the inspector general, when auditing loans and investments made through the fund, has the power to demand information from the Treasury Department and other executive branch agencies. The law requires reporting to Congress “without delay” if any agency balks and its refusal is unreasonable “in the judgment of the special inspector general.”

Democrats blocked a final agreement on the package this week as they insisted on stronger oversight provisions to ensure that the president and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin could not abuse the bailout fund. They feared that Mr. Trump, who has previously stonewalled congressional oversight, would do the same when it came to the corporate aid program.

But in his statement, which the White House made public about two hours after the president signed the bill, Mr. Trump suggested that under his own understanding of his constitutional powers as president, he can gag the special inspector general for pandemic recovery, known by the acronym S.I.G.P.R., and keep information from Congress....

....as cases have steadily increased, not much has changed in terms of the government’s policy response since late February. The prime minister’s office announced on March 20 that according to the expert panel’s latest recommendation, they would continue to focus on infection cluster countermeasures and preparing the health care infrastructure to be able to treat the seriously ill in the event of a leap in infections.

While Japan has a strong national health care system [$4,774 per capita/yr compared to highest-profit U.S. system at $10,209 per capita/yr] and more than four times the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people than the US, a shortage of medical supplies is an ongoing concern. More than 90 percent of medical institutions in Nagasaki prefecture have said they are facing shortages of masks and disinfectant, and hospitals in Hokkaido are providing just one mask per hospital visitor per day to protect their supply [while in the U.S. many health professionals cannot get masks].

....Based on the latest round of recommendations from the expert panel, the Japanese government is seeking “thorough behavioral changes” to improve citizens’ response to the coronavirus and ensure that people avoid places that meet the three conditions of poor ventilation, dense crowds, and dense conversation.

Faced with skyrocketing infections, much of Europe and the US have moved toward lockdowns. Japan hasn’t. The government insists that it doesn’t need to, citing that in some areas, almost all of the local coronavirus patients have been identified via contact tracing.

But Sato warns that as long as cases continue to rise, no one can afford to take their foot off the gas: “Even if we continue with the measures already in place, the spread will not end.”

It’s a worrying sign for a country that’s clearly ready to take off the masks and enjoy the cherry blossoms.