Japan Had To Destroy Tulips After People Continued to Visit Garden When They’re Supposed to Stay at Home

Some people break lockdown rules for somewhat understandable reasons.

Whether it’s to meet up with their lover, loved one, or stray cat they’ve been feeding for the last 5 years, loneliness can often drive us to do irrational things.

While it’s still wrong, it’s understandable, because humans are social creatures and we feel depressed when we can’t be around others.

But others are willing to risk spreading and contracting the coronavirus for the most trivial reasons, like to look at some freaking tulips.

Japan Had To Destroy Tulips After People Continued to Visit Garden When They’re Supposed to Stay at Home

Every April, tourists and residents flock to Sakura Furusato Square in Sakura City, Japan, to attend the annual Sakura Tulip Festa.

The festival of flowers showcases thousands of beautiful tulips in full bloom in an array of colours beneath an authentic Dutch windmill.

But since Japan has been placed under a state of emergency due to the Covid-19 outbreak, with people being urged to avoid non-essential outings, the festival was cancelled this year.

And everyone obediently stayed indoors because they understood that looking at flowers wasn’t as important as curbing the spread of a deadly virus.

Nope. Instead, they left their homes to view the flowers anyway, increasing the risk of spread.

And it wasn’t a small group, either.

According to Sakura City, who manages the square, around 400 people were seen on the grounds at 2 p.m. on 11 April, the first weekend after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared the state of emergency for Chiba prefecture.

This was despite the festival being called off and the parking lot being closed.

Due to its location, the area is difficult to cordon off, which means it’s hard to bar people from visiting, according to Sora News 24.

So, because people refused to listen, the authorities had to resort to violence, the only language some people seem to understand during this lockdown.

Flowers Cut

I don’t mean that officials started slapping people who came to visit the garden, though maybe that would have helped too.

Instead, they simply decided to cut all the tulips in the field, meaning about 800,000 tulips of 100 different varieties were cut down in their prime.

The city said that the decision to cut down all the tulips was a tough one, but a necessary measure to stop people from visiting.

虚しいねーー
千葉県佐倉市が管理する佐倉ふるさと広場（佐倉市臼井田）で市が新型コロナウイルス感染拡大防止対策として約100種類、約80万本のチューリップを全て刈り取った。
恒例の「チューリップフェスタ」は中止となったものの、チューリップを見物しに次々と人が集まったためで密集を避けるため pic.twitter.com/j1Fpuaagzc

— 横浜の人(愛称エル) (@YokohamaNoHito) April 19, 2020

 

Well, you asked for it.

Surprisingly, many people praised the city’s decision, though some expressed sadness for the farmer/hitman who had to destroy all those innocent flowers.

Though it might seem extreme, this decision is actually a no-brainer when you consider how fast infections in the country are rising.

Hospitals Overstreched

Japan has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases, which is why the government declared a state of emergency on Friday (17 April).

The country has now overtaken South Korea with 11,135 confirmed infections and 263 deaths.

The situation is so bad that there are fears there’ll be a collapse in healthcare, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologised to medical front-line workers for Japan’s inability to secure enough medical equipment.

And some hospitals are so overstretched that they have had to reject patients seeking treatment for other urgent illnesses like strokes and heart attacks.

That’s a nightmarish situation.

Follow The Rules

This is why it’s so important for us to follow the circuit breaker rules during this critical period.

Cases are rising at an alarming rate, and while the number of infections spread in the community is dropping, we need to continue to stay at home so we don’t overwhelm our healthcare system.

The last thing we want is to have a situation where doctors have to reject patients because they don’t have enough beds or medical supplies to treat them.