By Roy Mabasa Almost 100 percent of Filipinos afflicted with COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) in Japan have recovered while 126 stranded nationals are just waiting for the lifting of travel restrictions and availability of flights to ferry them home, Philippine Ambassador to Tokyo Jose Laurel V said on Monday. “Only a few (Filipino nationals) were affected based on the record we received. There were no fatalities. All have recovered,” Laurel said at the Laging Handa briefing. In Tokyo, Laurel said the six Filipino land-based workers who were infected with COVID-19 have all recovered, as well as the 21 cases in Osaka, and one in Nagoya. For sea-based Filipino workers, the 121 combined crewmembers of cruise ships Diamond Princess in Yokohama and the Costa Atlantica in Osaka have all recovered and were safely repatriated to the Philippines. The embassy, he said, has assisted in the repatriation of the almost 1,000 affected Filipinos since the start of the outbreak in Japan. The remaining 126 are individuals of varying categories such as students, tourists, and trainees left stranded due to the implementation of travel restrictions in both Japan and the Philippines. Laurel said that while the embassy remains open for its services, the general restrictions in Japan are still the same with the strict implementation of social distancing, wearing of face masks, and prohibition of large gatherings. “The situation has not changed because we have not yet discovered the vaccine that will address and cure COVID-19,” he said. As of today, Japan has a total of 17,429 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 925 fatalities, one of the lowest death rates in the world, according to the figures posted by the online COVID-monitoring platform Worldometer.