TOKYO (AP) – Japan extended the coronavirus emergency to seven prefectures on Wednesday, affecting more than half of the population amid an increase in infections across the country.
Prime Minister Yoshide Suga also said Japan will suspend express entry exceptions for business visitors or others with residence permits, and ban foreign visitors completely as long as the state of emergency is in place.
Suga’s announcement comes less than a week after he declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three nearby prefectures. The new statement, which adds seven other prefectures in western and central Japan, will take effect Thursday and will last until February 7.
“The dire situation continues, but these measures are indispensable to turn the tide,” Suga said at a news conference, bowing to public understanding.
He said he placed the seven prefectures in urban areas under a state of emergency to prevent infections from spreading to smaller cities where medical systems are more vulnerable.
Government calls for bars and restaurants in Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Aichi, Gifu and Tochigi prefectures to close by 8 p.m., employers should allow 70% of their staff to work from home and residents in affected areas avoid going out go for non-essential purposes.
Suga has been criticized for being too slow, as reported coronavirus infections and deaths in the country have roughly doubled in the last month to about 300,000 and 4,100, respectively. Both states of emergency were only declared after local leaders implored him to do so.
Experts have warned that even the emergency statements, which are non-binding and largely based on voluntary cooperation, may not be enough to delay infections significantly.
Unlike a previous seven-week state of emergency that Japan had in April and May last year, schools, gyms, theaters and shops will remain open.
Suga has been criticized for not having taken firm enough government action in the outbreak earlier. He limited his interventions mainly to asking the public to take basic security measures, such as wearing masks, washing hands, and avoiding drinking and eating in groups until mid-December, when he finally announced that a government subsidized domestic tourism campaign was discontinued.
Suga eventually took action after phone calls from local leaders, while his support figures plummeted in polls showing that the public was growing increasingly dissatisfied with his handling of the virus. He also came under fire for attending a pricey steak dinner in mid-December with eight attendees.
Suga took office in mid-September, promising to keep the contagions under control while getting the economy back on track. He also pledged to successfully hold the Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed from last year to next summer.
Despite the current increase in infections, Japan has reported far fewer infections than many countries of its size.
Japan has weathered past peaks in infections without a lockdown, but experts and officials warn that people are getting fatigued and becoming less cooperative than before.
In an effort to enforce virus measures more effectively, Suga has said he will seek legal overhaul in parliament next week to allow authorities to punish business owners who defy official requests for coronavirus measures, while legally providing compensation to those who follow it. meet. Suga’s government also plans to review the infectious disease control law so that it can punish patients who defy demands of self-isolation, hospitalization or cooperation with health authorities, Japanese media say.
Toshio Nakagawa, president of the Japan Medical Association, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the country’s medical systems are on the verge of collapse, with daily treatment in many hospitals jeopardized by the growing burden of coronavirus patients.
“I am concerned that the fear of explosive infections, as in the US and Europe, may become a reality,” he said, urging people to work together and regain their sense of crisis and urgency.
Japan is already facing a potential collapse in the medical system as coronavirus treatment is largely concentrated in public hospitals in a country where most hospitals are privately run and not equipped for infectious diseases. Suga said the situation needs to be reviewed.
The government has provided financial support to hospitals admitting coronavirus patients as they struggle to secure more beds as infections increase.
Officials in Tokyo, facing a hospital bedside crisis due to coronavirus treatment, are considering converting three prefecture-run hospitals into centers for COVID-19 patients.
The measures of the Japanese coronavirus relied heavily on the widespread wearing of masks, the identification of contacts and other security measures. But the number of new cases during the current outbreak has made tracing of contacts impossible, prompting Tokyo and neighboring prefectures to announce a cut in strategy to ease the burden on local public health officials.
Experts have also raised concerns about cases of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus that has spread across Britain. About 30 cases of the new variant have been discovered since the end of December. Another variant was also detected in four people who came from Brazil this week.
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