PM Yoshihide Kuga extends emergency measures across Japan

The prime minister said eight prefectures would enter a ‘quasi-state of emergency’.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported more than 5000 new infections on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

Japan has extended emergency measures over most of its population as infections rose to what its Prime Minister called “an unprecedented level”.

Yoshihide Suga said eight prefectures would enter a “quasi-state of emergency” on top of those already under a full emergency declaration such as Tokyo, as new cases of the coronavirus rose to more than 5000 in the capital and 15,000 in total across the country.

Twenty-seven per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.

Mr Suga’s government is facing intense criticism of an earlier decision to reserve hospital beds in Tokyo for those who are seriously ill, which will ease pressure in hospitals but greatly increase the number asked to isolate at home.

Political opponents criticised the government for not anticipating the rise and preparing beds in advance.

Experts said that Tokyo’s daily rates could double in two weeks.

Although these figures are far off the peaks experienced at the height of the pandemic in western Europe and North America, they are shocking in a country that until this year appeared to have successfully weathered the pandemic.

“The number of new infections has surged across the whole country at levels we have never seen before,” pandemic minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.

“We are now seeing clusters where we’d seldom seen them, such as at department stores, hairdressers and cram schools. Especially at department stores – there have been a lot of infections in basement and first-floor sections, where there are a lot of people.”

There is no sign of significant numbers of cases among Olympic visitors spreading into the wider population, from which it is supposed to be shielded by strict rules and testing. The Olympic authorities reported 31 new cases, for a total of 353.

The Times