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TOKYO, January 4: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Monday that the government would consider declaring a state of emergency for the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area as coronavirus cases escalate and strain the country’s medical system.
Japan registered a record 4,520 new cases on December 31 in a new wave of infections, prompting the capital Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures to request an emergency declaration from the national government.
The region accounted for more than half of the cases nationwide on Sunday.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has resisted those calls, aware of the potential damage to the economy.
As an interim measure, restaurants and karaoke lounges in the Tokyo area are required to close at 8 p.m., before the previous 10 p.m., while businesses serving alcohol must close at 7 p.m.
“Even during the three days of the New Year holidays, the cases were not recorded in the Tokyo metropolitan area,” Suga said at a press conference to mark the start of 2021. “We felt a stronger message was needed. .
He noted that cutting restaurant business hours had helped stem the rise in infections in some regions, including Osaka and Hokkaido.
If declared, it would be the second time that parts of Japan have entered a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic. The first lasted more than a month last spring, when schools and nonessential businesses were called for closures.
Japan has relied on voluntary closures and travel restrictions rather than the kind of rigid closure measures seen in other parts of the world.
Although the case numbers in Japan pale in comparison to many parts of Europe and America, Suga is challenged to host the Olympics in Tokyo this summer after the pandemic caused the Games’ first delay in 2020.
Japan said last month that it would temporarily ban non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country after the detection of the highly infectious new variant of the coronavirus. -Reuters
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