Japan's Daily COVID-19 Cases Surpass 5,000... Emergency Declaration Expected Tomorrow

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is holding a New Year's press conference at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo on the 4th. At this event, Prime Minister Suga stated that he is considering declaring a state of emergency in the Tokyo metropolitan area, including the capital where confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) are rapidly increasing, as well as in three other metropolitan regions. [Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The daily number of new COVID-19 cases in Japan has exceeded 5,000 for the first time.

According to the local public broadcaster NHK's tally, as of 6 p.m. on the 6th, 5,307 new COVID-19 infections were confirmed across Japan. This breaks the previous daily record of 4,915 cases set the day before, marking the highest number of daily cases for two consecutive days. The cumulative number of confirmed cases has risen to 259,457.

On the same day, Tokyo also recorded 1,591 new cases, surpassing the previous highest record of 1,337 cases set on the 31st of last month, breaking the record in just six days.

The Japanese government has decided to declare a state of emergency on the 7th for the four metropolitan prefectures in the Tokyo metropolitan area, including Tokyo, where COVID-19 is rapidly spreading. The Japanese government had previously declared states of emergency nationwide or in certain regions last year.

The areas where the state of emergency will be reissued this time are Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama prefectures. The effective date of the emergency declaration is expected to be either the night of the 7th when it is published in the official gazette or at midnight on the 8th. The duration of the declaration is reported to be about one month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.