Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday announced the lifting of a state of emergency in April to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in three western regions of the country.
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He hinted that he would do the same next week for Tokyo and its neighboring regions, as well as for the large northern island of Hokkaido, the last prefectures to be affected by this arrangement. " We have decided to lift the state of emergency in Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo, " Shinzo Abe told reporters. The Prime Minister introduced the device in Tokyo and six other regions on April 7, and then rolled it out across the country.
He added that the number of infections in regions maintained under emergency conditions is " steadily decreasing " and that the situation in the hospital system is improving. " I would therefore like the experts to examine the situation from May 25 and, if the current conditions continue, it seems to me possible to lift it " in these latter regions, he said.
Last week Japan had lifted the state of emergency in 39 of the 47 prefectures of the country, two weeks before the initially planned end of the device. Unlike many other countries, this regime in Japan does not result in compulsory confinements. Above all, it allows regional authorities to recommend that people stay at home as much as possible and that certain businesses considered non-essential close temporarily. Sanctions are not provided for recalcitrants.
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In total, Japan has recorded just over 16,400 cases, including almost 780 deaths from Covid-19 disease on its soil since the start of the health crisis, levels much lower than those observed in Europe and the United States. United.
The Japanese hospital system, however, feared to be saturated. The number of intensive care beds in the archipelago is estimated at 6,500, or five per 100,000 inhabitants, less than half the rate found in Italy, according to figures given in early May by the Japanese Society of Intensive Medicine.
The state of emergency should have weighed heavily on economic activity in Japan, particularly consumption and the supply chains of manufacturing companies.