Japan is considering putting boundaries to large gatherings the day after the main domestic travel campaign was re-elected.
The daily list of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan hit a record on day four, and a senior official says Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government may once again restrict sports and other major events in an attempt to stem the surge.
The Japanese Ministry of Health reported 2,508 cases on Sunday, the second time the daily number exceeded 2,500. In the Japanese capital Tokyo, the daily infection rate of 539 cases was an all-time high.
Japan has had fewer than 2,000 coronavirus-related deaths so far – to avoid the number of hardest hit countries – but fears of a further increase are mounting and local media say hospital capacity in the hardest hit areas is due to A growing number of severely affected countries is being tested. Sick patients are occupying fewer and fewer beds.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told the public broadcaster NHK on Sunday that the government was considering reintroducing restrictions on participation in large gatherings in areas of the country, with the number of cases increasing sharply.
He said the government was also considering reimbursing customers who had booked trips through a domestic tourism campaign that was partially suspended on Saturday.
The end of the GoTo program, which encouraged travel and dining with discounts, marked a change of direction for Suga, attempting a balancing act between revitalizing the hardest-hit Japanese economy and controlling the coronavirus.
Critics say the move was too little and too late as many people had already made travel reservations for a three-day Thanksgiving weekend in Japan.
Airports and restaurants are busy, and some say the government should have offered to pay for cancellations or instead stepped up PCR testing if the goal is to keep the economy going amid a pandemic.
Online tutorials on proper ways to eat and drink in restaurants while wearing masks.
Meanwhile, NHK said on Sunday that Japan’s “hospitals are under pressure”. In seven of the country’s 47 prefectures, including Hyogo, Osaka, Hokkaido, Aichi and Tokyo, bed occupancy is over 30 percent.
In the past week alone, the number of hospital patients rose by 32 percent, said NHK.
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