A recent increase in COVID-19 cases could cause large swaths of Japan to slide back into a state of emergency, with authorities in Tokyo and Osaka looking at new curbs to stop the spread.
The new wave of infections complicates preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, which will start in July and have already been postponed due to the global coronavirus outbreak last year.
Japan this month placed Osaka, Tokyo and eight other prefectures under “quasi-emergency conditions” aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19 with shorter opening hours for restaurants and bars and stronger calls for telecommuting.
But those measures have done little to reverse the trend so far, with Osaka reporting a record 1,220 cases on Sunday, two weeks after those restrictions took effect when a mutated strain fueled the spread.
“The fruits of these measures should now be visible,” Osaka governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told reporters in comments circulated online.
“Medical services are also in a dire state and we have decided we need a state of emergency. We need stronger measures, such as measures that would stop the movement of people,” he said, adding that the third most populous prefecture Japan would make the formal request to the government on Tuesday.
In a TV Asahi poll released Monday, just over half of respondents said they believed the “quasi-emergency” restrictions were ineffective.
Tokyo is also considering a state of emergency, Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters late on Sunday, taking a step back as Japan works to get the pandemic under control ahead of the Summer Olympics.
“Preventive action is critical at this point,” said Koike. Tokyo reported 543 new cases on Sunday, the 18th consecutive day of seven-day increases.
When asked about possible requests from Osaka and Tokyo, Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, the government’s top spokesman, said such calls should be considered “quickly”.
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