Jul 24 (Nikkei) - Japan's daily COVID-19 cases topped 200,000 for the first time, according to a tally of new cases reported Saturday, marking the fourth straight day of a record count during the seventh wave of coronavirus infections.
Tokyo logged 32,698 new cases, exceeding the 30,000 mark for a third straight day. The government said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno tested positive for the virus on the same day.
Record daily cases were reported in a large number of prefectures during the latest surge driven by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant known as BA.5. They included Kanagawa, Aichi, Osaka, Fukuoka and Okinawa prefectures.
In Tokyo on Saturday, medical staff and elderly care workers also began receiving their fourth COVID-19 vaccinations after the government expanded its eligibility criteria in response to Japan's seventh wave of infections.
Last week's decision to begin the vaccinations was aimed at ensuring enough medical and care workers are available when Japan is seeing record numbers of new cases driven by the BA.5 strain.
Some medical institutions in the capital have been forced to limit the number of emergency patients they accept and scale back surgical procedures they conduct due to staff shortages caused by a spate of COVID infections.
Source: ANNnewsCH
