(ANSA) - TOKYO, APRIL 09 - The Japanese government is ready to introduce new restrictions in the capital Tokyo to address the recent rise of Covid infections and the return to suffering of the hospital system.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said this three weeks after the end of the last state of emergency, and while the capital recorded the highest number of positivity since mid-February, a dynamic which, although at lower levels than European standards, continues to worry the authorities in view of the Olympics this summer.
Tokyo has reported 545 infections in the last 24 hours, and the new measures should come into effect from next Monday in the 23 municipalities of the metropolis, with a duration of one month, until 11 May, the Japanese media anticipate, with the possible inclusion of the prefectures of Kyoto and Okinawa.
After meeting with Suga, Tokyo's governor YurikoKoike said the 'quasi-emergency' plan should also cover the national holiday period of Golden Week, the first week of May, which is one of the periods in which the largest movements of the city are recorded. population.
"Reducing the traffic of people at this stage is vitally important in limiting contagion," Koike said.
The governor added that the possible relaxation of restrictions could cause a new surge in capital like what is happening in the city of Osaka.
The latter was the first to reopen its commercial activities and is now in the midst of an unprecedented emergency, with 905 daily infections, due to the spread of the new variants.
The review of the measures that will be adopted in Tokyop provides for sanctions on restaurants and bars that will not comply with the request for early evening closures, and more poteria the governors for specific measures.
On a national basis, the number of infections exceeded 3,000 for the second consecutive day: it had not happened since the end of January, when the state of emergency was in force in the country's 11 prefectures.
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