Japan Expands Virus Emergency to Cover 60% of Economy
Bloomberg
13/01/2021
Gearoid Reidy and Isabel Reynolds
(Bloomberg) -- Japan expanded its state of emergency beyond the Tokyo region to encompass the country’s other main economic hubs including Osaka, as it battles to contain a record surge in coronavirus cases.
The government is adding seven more prefectures to the existing emergency declaration, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told his virus task force on Wednesday.
“We are expanding the designated areas to prevent the expansion of the infection throughout the country,” Suga told a later news conference. He said bars and restaurants in the seven prefectures would be asked to close by 8 p.m. and remote work would be encouraged, in line with rules applied in Tokyo.