Tokyo News: Government may extend the State of Emergency in Tokyo environs
Kanako Mita and Sawako Utsumi
Modern Tokyo Times
The Japanese government is mulling the extension of the State of Emergency by two more weeks in the environs of Tokyo. This includes Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama.
Infections from coronavirus (Covid-19) have come down throughout Japan in recent weeks. However, deaths keep on ticking and the decline in infections appears to be slowing in the environs of Tokyo. Hence, the regional leaders in Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo are worried about the elderly angle and different coronavirus mutations.
Officially, the State of Emergency was intended to be lifted on March 7. Yet, for other parts of Japan that were covered including Aichi, Hyogo, Kyoto, and Osaka, the emergency was lifted earlier based on declining infections and hospital bed occupancy.
Concerning Tokyo and the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama, the Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga uttered, “I am thinking that we may need to extend the state of emergency by about two weeks to protect people’s lives and livelihoods.”
The Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said recently, “There’s the analysis that says if we don’t step things up a gear, we might have a situation where we won’t be in time (for the March 7 end to the state of emergency).”
Overall, while bed occupancy is declining in the areas of concern – in line with other parts of Japan that were covered by the State of Emergency – problems remain. Therefore, it appears likely that Suga will announce an extension on the requests of the regional leaders of Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo.
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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