Tokyo yesterday reported a daily record of COVID-19 cases, heightening concerns that cases are spreading in communities and spilling beyond the capital.
The city saw 286 new cases, the highest count for a single day, according to reporting by public broadcaster NHK.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters earlier that day that the city had conducted more than 4,000 tests.
Photo: AP Kyodo News
The growing number of cases caused the national government to backtrack on a widely panned campaign aimed at promoting regional tourism.
While the initial flare-up in Tokyo came from nightclubs, with an increase in cases due to more aggressive testing of bar workers, authorities expressed concern that more cases are now stemming from people getting infected in restaurants and at workplaces.
COVID-19 is not just spreading more widely across sectors, but also across the country.
Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures, which border Tokyo, saw the most infections since the lifting of the state of emergency on May 25, while Osaka, the country’s second-largest economic area, had more than 60 cases for a second consecutive day, according to NHK reporting.
A tally by broadcaster TBS counted 502 infections nationwide as of 6pm.
A campaign to spur domestic tourism set to start next week would now exclude visitors to and from Tokyo, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure Transport and Tourism Kazuyoshi Akaba said, reacting to public concern that the campaign is likely to help spread COVID-19 around the nation.
Officials had been adamant that the program, which is set to give tourists discounts and coupons to boost regional spending, would go ahead as planned in an attempt to support the travel industry devastated by a drop in foreign visitors to nearly zero.
Many regional politicians urged the government to rethink the campaign, fearing that visitors from the capital and other urban areas would end up spreading COVID-19 to regions that have been relatively lightly affected.
Although officials have called for increased caution, they have so far maintained that there is no need for a broad closure of businesses.
The medical system was not strained, and a majority of new cases came from younger people, authorities said.
In Tokyo, there were 721 hospitalizations as of Wednesday, with just eight listed as serious.
However, the city government has struck a harsher tone in the past few days, with Koike saying that she might issue business closure requests if needed.
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