Reopening move: Travel to be OK'd between 34 prefectures off Japan's 'special vigilance' list

May 12, 2020 | News On Japan

May 12, 2020 (Japan Times) - The government wonâ€™t ask people to refrain from traveling between prefectures where the extended state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic will be lifted, sources said Monday.

Deliberations on lifting the state of emergency declaration for 34 prefectures not designated for intensive measures to curb the novel coronavirus are in the final phase.

The governmentâ€™s current policy calls for avoiding interprefectural travel, but its next move is expected to call for avoiding travel only between prefectures that remain under the state of emergency. The extension is scheduled to expire at end of the month.

The government will formally decide whether to lift the designation for certain prefectures when its coronavirus response headquarters meets on Thursday after a meeting by an advisory panel of infectious-disease experts.

The government and the experts are trying to draw up a numerical standard for determining whether to lift the emergency declaration. One proposal includes making use of the number of daily infections logged in the past one to two weeks, the number of beds available at intensive care units, and the rate of infections detected by polymerase chain reaction tests.

While the epidemic is still feared to be raging in the 13 prefectures designated as â€œrequiring special vigilance,â€ the other 34 have seen either single-digit or zero daily infections.

But Ibaraki and Gifu, which are in the group of 13, have seen dramatic declines in infections, so the government is also considering placing them in the regions where the emergency declaration might be lifted.

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