A COVID-19 state of emergency takes effect in seven more prefectures, with restrictions on business activity aimed at curbing Japan s largest yet wave of infections.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga asks Japan s largest business lobby to help reduce the number of commuters through telework as the increasingly rampant novel coronavirus puts a strain on the country s medical system.
Japan s daily COVID-19 cases set a record high of 15,753 for the fourth straight day, while the number of people hospitalized in Tokyo breaks the previous record set in January, as the pandemic appears to show no signs of abating amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Japan to lift COVID-19 quasi-emergency in 3 prefectures after weekend
The Japanese government is set Thursday to decide to lift the COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency in three prefectures after this weekend as infections have subsided.
Restrictions in Gunma, Ishikawa and Kumamoto, including a ban on restaurants serving alcohol and requiring them to close by 8 p.m. as well as a 5,000-person attendance cap at events, are expected to be lifted at the end of Sunday as scheduled. A Tokyo Olympic torch relay event takes place in the Ishikawa Prefecture city of Nanao on June 1, 2021, with the torch relay on public roads having been canceled in the central Japan prefecture due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Japan has administered COVID-19 vaccines to more than 10 million people, the Prime Minister s Office says, as the country tries to speed up inoculations that are lagging far behind other developed countries.