Tokyo News: The Covid-19 State of Emergency in Tokyo environs to continue

Tokyo News: The Covid-19 State of Emergency in Tokyo environs to continue

Kanako Mita and Sawako Utsumi

Modern Tokyo Times

The coronavirus (Covid-19) State of Emergency will continue until March 21 in Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama. This comes into line with the wishes of all regional leaders who appealed to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to extend the emergency situation.

Deaths in Japan have reached over 8,100 because of increasing deaths in the last four months. Hence, despite infections falling throughout Japan – even if at a lower recent level in Chiba, Kanagawa, Tokyo, and Saitama – fears persist. Therefore, Suga is responding to regional requests who fear a fresh uptake in infections if the State of Emergency is lifted too soon.

Suga said, “We will maintain current measures such as shortened business hours for restaurants, a voluntary ban on nonessential outings, and more working from home. These have proven effective. Together with local governments, we will continue to strongly encourage these measures.”

Unlike many European nations blighted by lockdown, the situation is very different in Japan. Indeed, the country ran a tourist campaign last year amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis when infections were relatively low. Thus if you visited Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Yokohama, and many other parts under the continuing State of Emergency, then it is difficult to notice the existence of a genuine emergency situation. This relates to crowded trains during rush hour and busy shopping malls.

NHK reports, “The prime minister added that the government will step up efforts to prevent cluster infections by carrying out tests at about 30,000 elderly care facilities and other locations by the end of the month.”

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is especially worried about the above. This is based on the increasing number of deaths among the elderly in Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210306_01/

https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/ – Tokyo Metropolitan Government website for updates about the coronavirus crisis in Tokyo.

https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html – Japan and Tokyo Covid-19 news with more analysis

https://covid19japan.com/ – Japan regional coronavirus statistics

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ World coronavirus statistics

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