Society

Tokyo COVID-19 travel restrictions lifted in bid to boost economy

Jun 21 (Ruptly) - Crowds of people were seen boarding trains and buses stations in Tokyo, as domestic travel restrictions across prefectures were lifted on Friday in an attempt to help the economy recover from the pandemic downturn.

Having the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases among the country's 47 prefectures, Some of Tokyo's citizens have taken the chance to travel after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe encouraged them to go sightseeing or to attend events, during a speech on Tuesday. He cautioned people to observe social distancing.

Abe had declared the end of the state of emergency across the nation at the end of May, after the infection number had decreased.

The latest government announcement has been to raise the number of attendees permitted at events to 1,000.

Japan has reported so far 17,654 coronavirus cases and 938 related fatalities, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

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