Society

Quasi-emergency measures against COVID to be extended in 18 prefs.

Mar 04 (NHK) - The Japanese government has decided to extend coronavirus quasi-emergency measures in 18 prefectures, while they will end in 13 others at the end of the day on Sunday.

The measures will be extended through March 21 in the 18 prefectures, where the occupancy rate of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients remains high.

They are Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Hokkaido, Aomori, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Ishikawa, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Kagawa and Kumamoto.

The measures will be lifted in 13 other prefectures where outbreaks have improved.

They are Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Mie, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Kochi, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

The minister in charge of Coronavirus Measures Yamagiwa Daishiro spoke in the Diet on Friday. He said the number of new cases has been on the decline in many areas in the 18 prefectures. But he said the hospital bed occupancy rate remains high in those places, and that the government needs to continue efforts to reduce the burden on the medical care system.

This will be the second extension for the 18 prefectures, where the quasi-emergency measures were introduced in January.

Source: Kyodo

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