Society

Tokyo reports record 949 new COVID-19 cases

Dec 26 (Japan Times) - Tokyo reported a record 949 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday as infections continue to climb throughout the country.

Among the daily total, 113 cases involved people age 65 or older while the number of severely ill patients, based on the city’s standards, came to 81 — the same as the previous day, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

People in their 20s made up the largest group, at 277, followed by 202 people in their 30s and 134 people in their 50s. The cumulative number of infections in the capital stood at 55,851.

The spike in new cases in the capital comes after 9,502 coronavirus tests were administered on Wednesday. It usually takes around three days for tests to produce results.

On Friday, Japan confirmed a record 3,832 new coronavirus cases, the third consecutive day above 3,000.

The country also saw its first cases of a mutated form of COVID-19 in five people who entered the nation from the U.K., health minister Norihisa Tamura said the same day.

The people who tested positive with the new strain, which is said to spread more easily and was blamed for a recent spike in infections in the U.K., returned to Japan this month — two at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and and three at Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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