May 21 (NHK) - The Japanese government plans to formally endorse plans to lift the state of emergency declared in three prefectures in western Japan, while maintaining the emergency in the Tokyo metropolitan area and Hokkaido.
The central government is set to decide on Thursday whether it will lift the state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and six other prefectures. Last week, the government canceled the nationwide declaration for 39 other prefectures.
It's likely to be lifted for Osaka and its neighbors --- Kyoto and Hyogo. That's because the rate of new infections there has fallen below 0.5 per 100,000 people in the past week --- a benchmark set by the government for the emergency declaration to be lifted.
Officials also plan to decide whether to lift the declaration for Tokyo and its three prefectural neighbors as a group.
The rates for Tokyo and Kanagawa currently do not meet the criteria, although Saitama and Chiba do. The northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido also fails to meet the criteria.
The government is to consult its advisory panel of experts about its decision on Thursday. It will then inform the Diet of the plan before finalizing it at a taskforce meeting later in the day.
The government plans to continue to urge residents in Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures as well as Hokkaido to refrain from nonessential outings.
It says residents in prefectures where the emergency has been lifted should reduce contact between people to minimize infections.
Source: ANNnewsCH
