The Japanese government decided on Friday (May 7) to extend the deadline for the “emergency declaration” covering Tokyo and other prefectures from May 11 to May 31 to curb a surge in confirmed cases caused by the spread of mutated strains of the new coronavirus.
In announcing the decision, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the government had hoped to improve the situation with a “short-term, focused” response to contain a fourth wave of infections, but new cases in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka remain high.
The prefectures included in the newly extended “emergency declaration” are Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo. In addition, two new prefectures, Aichi and Fukuoka, were added from the 12th.
The third “Declaration of Emergency” was issued on April 25 and was scheduled to end on May 11. In April last year and January this year, the Japanese government issued two “declarations of emergency”.
The Japanese government extended the “Declaration of Emergency” until after the end of this month, less than two months before the opening of the Olympic Games. The Tokyo Olympics were originally scheduled for July 24, 2020, but were postponed to July 23 this year due to the global pandemic of the new coronavirus outbreak.
“Serious illnesses and death rates are rapidly increasing” and “we will overcome this problem in the near future,” Kan said. He also pledged to increase efforts to get people vaccinated, hoping to vaccinate 1 million people a day.
The Japan Broadcasting Association reported Friday that 61 people were infected with the new coronavirus at a nursing home in Osaka, and 14 of them died while waiting to be hospitalized. Osaka Prefecture reported 1,005 new cases and Tokyo added 907 cases.
The number of new infections across Japan on May 2 was 5,900, including 879 in Tokyo, 1,057 in Osaka and 539 in Hyogo.
According to data released by the Japanese government, the cumulative number of new coronavirus infections in Japan to date is 618,197 cases and 10,585 deaths.
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