The number of newly confirmed cases in Tokyo reached 5,042 in a single day, setting a record since the beginning of the pandemic. Since the opening of the Olympic Games, the number of confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia in the Japanese capital has increased sharply.
The new cases announced on Thursday brought the total number of confirmed cases in Tokyo to 236,138. Nationwide, the total number of confirmed cases in Japan has reached 980,728 and the total number of deaths has reached 15,247.
Al Jazeera reporter Andy Richardson reported in Tokyo that since last week, nearly twice the number shows how fast the situation in Tokyo is escalating.
Andy Richardson also said, “Many of the people we interviewed here are feeling increasingly frustrated, and the vaccination progress is slow… Now as the number of people infected with the delta variant of the new crown virus has surged across the country, this is having an impact. “
Tokyo has been in a state of emergency since mid-July. Since then, the other four regions have also joined the emergency area, and the state of emergency has been extended to August 31.
But these measures basically prohibit drinking in restaurants and bars, and require shortening of business hours, but this is increasingly being ignored by the public, who are tired of restrictions.
Richardson said, “The state of emergency itself is a bit paradoxical because it is not a law or order. It just requires people to stay at home and work from home as much as possible.”
He also said, “Perhaps it is not surprising that when the same government continued to host the Olympics, people did not comply with these requirements.”
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga denied that the Olympic Games from July 23 to August 8 will lead to an increase in the number of infections.
Some experts were shocked by the speed of transmission and called for the state of emergency currently being implemented in Tokyo and five other regions to be extended to the whole country.
Instead, Yoshihide Suga announced Thursday that eight prefectures have entered a mild version of the state of emergency, including Fukushima in the east and Kumamoto in the south.
Experts from the Japanese government’s new crown epidemic expert group warned that the infection situation caused by the more contagious delta variant has become “explosive”, and the number of new confirmed cases in a single day may exceed 10,000 in the next two weeks.
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