Tokyo: The Japanese government on Monday officially announced its decision to extend the nationwide state of emergency imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, by nearly a month until May 31.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, made the formal decision to extend the state of emergency beyond May 6, the last day of Japan’s Golden Week holiday reports Xinhua news agency. After an advisory panel of medical experts approved the extension in the morning, the government notified the parliament of the decision.
Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told Parliament that the pace of decline of newly confirmed cases is not fast enough, though the number of new infections has been on a downward trend. The state of emergency had been due to expire on Wednesday, but Nishimura said earlier that new infections were still growing.
“The number of new cases has declined, but unfortunately the decrease has not reached the targeted level,” he said during a meeting with an expert panel advising the government on the pandemic.
“As the healthcare sector remains under pressure, we need continued cooperation from people. We need to see a further reduction in new cases,” Nishimura added.
The extension comes as the medical system has come under mounting pressure with increasing cases and sluggish economic activities due to stay-at-home requests and business closure.
Abe first declared a month-long state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures on April 7, but this was expanded to cover the entire nation on April 16, in part to dissuade large numbers of people crossing prefectural lines during the five-day Golden Week holidays, which officially began on Saturday.
The state of emergency was originally scheduled to end on May 6, the last day of the Golden Week holidays.
On Friday, a panel of medical experts recommended that the Japanese government continue requesting the nation to continue to follow social restrictions to tackle the spread of the coronavirus and as such believed the state of emergency should be extended. As of Monday, the number of coronavirus cases in Japan increased to 14,877, with 487 deaths.
The state of emergency falls far short of the harshest measures seen in parts of Europe and the United States. It allows local governors to urge people to stay at home and call on businesses to stay shut. But officials cannot compel citizens to comply, and there are no punishments for those who fail to do so.
The government is expected to urge residents in 13 high-risk prefectures, including Japan’s biggest cities, to continue cutting person-to-person contact by 80 percent and exercise other strict social distancing measures but, museums, libraries, and some other facilities are likely to be allowed to reopen so long as they take anti-virus measures.
For the rest of Japan, prefectures will be allowed to loosen restrictions on business closures and small gatherings but residents will still be asked not to travel outside their home regions. Bars and nightclubs will be asked to remain shut.
It remains unclear when and whether schools, many of which have been closed since March, will be able to reopen, with officials recently suggesting a possible phased reopening with certain key grades resuming before others. Abe said experts would review the situation around May 14, and the measures could be lifted at that time depending on the situation in a given region.
