Japan: Virus cases fall as Tokyo numbers top 100K

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Daily reported novel coronavirus cases fell to a month-long low in Japan's capital on Monday as the country mulls a state of emergency extension in its worst-hit provinces.

Authorities in Tokyo announced that there had been 393 new cases, raising the total in the city to over 100,000, NHK News reported.

This was the first time since Dec. 28 that the daily figure fell below 500.

Tokyo has accumulated 100,234 cases of COVID-19 so far, with 133 patients currently in critical condition.

Meanwhile, the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is considering whether to extend the country's state of emergency that ends Tuesday in the provinces hit worst by the pandemic.

Suga had announced the state of emergency on Jan. 7 in Tokyo and Osaka, later extending it to at least 11 provinces until Feb. 7.

Yasutoshi Nishimura, the head of Japan's response against the outbreak, said a panel of experts in public health and other fields would convene to decide on whether to extend the measures.

Under the state of emergency, local authorities in Japan's 47 provinces are empowered to ask people to refrain from unnecessarily leaving their homes, while restaurants and bars have been asked to close at 8 p.m. local time.

COVID-19 has caused the deaths of more than 5,700 people in Japan, while nearly 400,000 have been infected in the country.