Japan imposes quasi-emergency against Covid

Tokyo, Jan 7 (UNI/Xinhua) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed Friday three Japanese prefectures with surging cases of Covid-19 related to virus outbreaks at US bases would be placed under a quasi-state of emergency.

Okinawa, host to the vast majority of US bases in Japan, will be put under a quasi-state of emergency, following a new record of 1,414 new daily virus cases on Friday.

The two other prefectures subject to stricter antiviral measures, Yamaguchi and Hiroshima, meanwhile, will see the mandate only applied to certain towns and cities, with stricter measures coming into effect for all three affected prefectures from Sunday to January 31.

The decision to go ahead with the emergency measures to tackle the surging cases of the virus and try to limit its spread in the three prefectures, followed the move being approved by an advisory panel of experts earlier on Friday.

The minister in charge of Japan’s coronavirus measures, Daishiro Yamagiwa, told the expert panel that the rampant nature of the latest Covid-19 spread, if left unchecked, will put great pressure on medical facilities.

He stressed there was a need for the government to proactively tackle the situation and contain the spread of the virus, particularly the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.

Under the quasi-state of emergency, the first since Kishida took office in October as the nation’s leader, prefectural officials will be empowered to enhance antiviral measures further.