WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO) organized an online meeting connecting WHO Collaborating Centres (WHO CCs) in the region on 25 August 2020, to share experiences and promote networking on COVID-19 response. The meeting shared regional update on situation and responses, and COVID-19 related experiences of selected WHO CCs, followed by discussions on opportunities for enhancing collaboration between WPRO and WHO CCs. Priorities of WPROs support to countries included a health systems approach rather than single intervention. On behalf of WHO CCs in Japan, the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) delivered a presentation on the results of a survey about COVID-19 related activities of these WHO CCs. These activities were categorized into collaboration with WHO, research and development, public health responses, and clinical services. Collaboration with WHO included sending consultants through the scheme of GOARN, strengthening of COVID-19 testing, and contribution to development of WPRO guidelines. Research and development involved establishment of a nationwide registry of COVID-19 clinical data. Following the meeting, NCGM further enhanced its activities as WHO CC. Since WHO CCs in the country have a wide range of expertise that could contribute to health system strengthening, it is worthwhile for the WHO CCs to consider amending existing work plans for supporting countries in the region to incorporate a health systems approach as part of COVID-19 response strategies.Many large international cities, such as Shanghai, are facing the threat of more imported cases of COVID-19 because of the frequent flow of people and objects at home and abroad. In the face of the complex and changing disease status of the international community, dealing with this disease effectively is a great challenge to the city's existing public health emergency response capacity and also a major test of designated COVID-19 hospitals. Here, we share our experience as a designated COVID-19 hospital in Shanghai, China in terms of i) A Professional Multi-disciplinary Team, ii) Personalized Treatment Plans for Patients in Severe or Critically Ill Condition, iii) Well-organized Classification of Patients, iv) Establishment of Transitional Wards, v) Nosocomial Infection Prevention and Control, and vi) Identification and Reporting of the Asymptomatic in the hopes that these approaches can serve as a reference for healthcare providers and medical staff who are fighting the pandemic.The quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method using nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS RT-qPCR) is regarded as the reference standard for diagnosing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, when using NPS RT-qPCR at busy airport quarantine stations, there are constraints on testing capacity, time, travelerstolerance, and availability of personal protective equipment for quarantine officers. A feasible alternative is therefore needed to test incoming travelers, especially when passenger numbers increase with the resumption of business, tourism, and economic activities. To explore alternatives to NPS RT-qPCR, we collected nasopharyngeal, anterior nasal, and saliva samples chronologically over days 1-7 from asymptomatic COVID-19 air travelers who were under quarantine at a designated facility, and we then compared test results for 9 different methods, comprising RT-qPCR (including the reference method), loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), and qualitative and quantitative antigen testing. We evaluated sensitivity for 97 person-day samples independently to evaluate asymptomatic travelers regardless of their testing date and period of asymptomatic status upon entry. Sensitivity of the different tests varied from 46.6% to 81.0%, but this was improved from 72.7% to 100.0% when the viral load was > 10 4 copies/sample on NPS RT-qPCR. Thus, most high-risk asymptomatic travelers with higher viral load would be detected by the tests evaluated. Quantitative antigen testing using saliva samples showed 90.9% sensitivity and provided quicker results, and should be an acceptable alternative to NPS RT-qPCR at busy airport quarantine stations. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/alkbh5-inhibitor-2.html We discuss the implications of our exploratory findings for establishing a comprehensive and feasible testing strategy for COVID-19 among air passengers.In Japan, clinical and experimental studies addressing COVID-19 have been increasing in number since early February 2020, with many case reports being published. Concurrently, many notifications and guidelines have been issued from the government and academic societies. Taking optimal measures at the prefectural level as well as the national level is necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Surveying and analyzing details of the incidences of infected persons in each prefecture is extremely important. This report describes the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 observed in Okayama Prefecture, followed by discussion of the direction of public health actions to be taken in the future. We reiterate the crucial importance of reinforcing and maintaining current public health measures, including rapid and detailed compilation of information related to infected persons and their surroundings, appropriate blocking of viral transmission, and early containment of infected persons, to minimize the spread of infection especially during the overlapping epidemic period of influenza in Okayama Prefecture.The aim of this study is to investigate myocardial damage in recovering coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with high-sensitivity troponin levels (hsTnT) and echocardiography. In this single-center cohort study, 215 COVID-19 recovered patients were recruited from all over Japan between April and September 2020. Demographic characteristics, hsTnT levels, and echocardiography data were collected for 209 patients, after excluding those without serum samples or good-quality echocardiographic images. The mean (± standard deviation) age was 44 (± 12) years (range 36-55 years), and 50.7% of the patients were males. The median time interval (interquartile range) from COVID-19 onset to post-recovery examination was 56 days (34-96 days). Seventy-four recovered patients (35.4%) had hsTnT less than detection sensitivity ( less then 3 pg/mL) and 135 recovered patients (64.6%) had hsTnT ≥ 3 pg/mL. Ejection fraction was more than 50% in all cases. Left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LVGLS) and right ventricular free-wall longitudinal strain (RVFWLS) were reduced in 62 (29.