FUKUOKA, Aug 17 — Japan was set today to extend its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to Sept. 12 and widen curbs to seven more prefectures, as Covid-19 cases spike in the capital and nationwide, burdening the medical system.
The current state of emergency is due to expire on Aug. 31, but a continuing surge in coronavirus cases has spurred calls for an extension. Tokyo announced 4,377 new daily cases today, after a record 5,773 on Friday.
The state of emergency will cover slightly less than 60 per cent of the population after the government adds the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka.
“Many experts expressed an extremely strong sense of crisis about the medical care situation and the status of infections,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said after getting approval from a panel of public health advisers for the expansion.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to formally announce the move later today. He will then hold a news conference at 9:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) to explain the decision.
The coronavirus curbs include asking restaurants to close early and stop serving alcohol in exchange for a government subsidy.
Worries about the infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus detracted from upbeat earnings today, with the broad Topix ending about half a per cent lower.
Japan’s case fatality rate, a common measure of Covid-19 deaths across the globe, stands at about 1.3 per cent, relative to 1.7 per cent in the United States and 2.1 per cent in Britain.
But health experts worry that deaths could spike in Japan as the Delta variant rages through the younger population and hospitals become too packed to treat serious cases.
Over 80 per cent of Tokyo’s critical care beds are occupied, and the rate is already 100 per cent in neighbouring Kanagawa prefecture.
Dai-ichi Life Research Institute estimated in a report that the government’s extended and expanded state of emergency would lead to a total economic loss of about ¥1.2 trillion (US$10.98 billion) and could slash 66,000 jobs.
That was about 60 per cent higher than an expected economic loss of about ¥750 billion if the emergency remained at its current scope and schedule.
The expert advisers also approved the government’s plan to expand less strict “quasi-emergency” measures to 10 additional prefectures, Nishimura said.
Repeated states of emergency have had limited effect in slowing the spread of the virus in Japan as cooperation is voluntary.
Takuto Honda, a 20-year-old university student in southwestern Fukuoka city who works part-time at a karaoke shop, said he thought a harder lockdown with government pay-outs would be more effective.
“If there is money to host the Olympics, there should be money to compensate us,” he said.
Pandemic fatigue and summer vacations have also been blamed for contributing to the latest Covid-19 surge in a nation where only around 37 per cent of people have been fully vaccinated. — Reuters
