Tokyo: Japan expanded the state of emergency in areas surrounding the capital as well as in the city of Osaka from 2-31 August. The government also extended the state of emergency declared in its capital, Tokyo. The Japan government took this decision as the daily number of Covid-19 cases increased sharply overshadowing the Olympics held at Tokyo.
Although Japan was successful in fighting the infection by keeping the daily cases and death low, the country has been now witnessing a sharp increase in the cases. The Delta variant of the virus is behind the sharp spike in the cases. Daily cases nationwide topped 10,000 for the first time on Thursday, more than a third of them in Tokyo.
Tokyo has seen three straight days of record cases. 3300 new cases were reported in Tokyo on Friday and 3865 cases on Thursday. Olympic organizers reported 27 new infections at the Games on Friday, bringing the total since the start of July to more than 200.
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Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of island nation has warned that the infections were spreading at an unprecedented rate. ‘If the increase of infection does not stop, the severe symptoms cases will increase and the medical system may possibly be further under strain,’ Suga said.
Earlier, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura warned that the country had entered a new, ‘extremely frightening’, stage of the pandemic.
‘I think that people cannot see ahead and, worrying how long this situation will last, they find it unbearable that they cannot return to normal daily life,’ said Tamura to Reuters.
As per reports, the medical system in Tokyo is under strain as 64% of Tokyo’s hospital beds available for serious COVID-19 cases are already filled as of mid-week.
As of Thursday, 27% of the Japanese population has been fully vaccinated. The percentage of the elderly who are fully vaccinated is 71.5%.
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