Tokyo, Japan – With less than 100 days to go before the scheduled opening of the postponed Tokyo Olympics, Japan is witnessing the emergence of a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which some fear will dwarf the previous three.
Much to the government’s chagrin, daily coronavirus cases have been on the rise since early March and this week began to cross 4,000 infections a day.
In the 15 months since Japan recorded its first case of COVID-19, there have now been more than 500,000 confirmed infections and nearly 10,000 deaths in the country.
The government of Yoshihide Suga, however, appears determined to host the Tokyo Olympics after the initial one-year delay, and has attempted to downplay the seriousness of the current crisis. It has refused to declare a third “state of emergency.”