Osaka – Faced with the rising number of coronavirus cases and the growing shortage of hospital beds, leaders in the Kansai region have declared a state of emergency for the New Year period.
The announcement came on Saturday just days after Osaka prefecture announced its own state of emergency and called on the Self-Defense Forces to send nurses to care for the growing number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
On Sunday, Osaka Prefecture recorded 251 new infections, ending a five-day streak on Saturday with more than 300 new cases. According to the prefecture government, prefectural hospital beds for the seriously ill, including coronaviruses, were 66.9% full.
“A high percentage of infected and seriously ill people are elderly and we need to control it,” Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told the Kansai Union of Governments meeting on Saturday in Osaka City.
Concerned about an increase in infections and anxious to prevent a collapse of medical systems in the area, union rulers are urging Kansai residents to avoid returning to their hometowns during the holidays if they can and to avoid unnecessary travel. People are also asked to stay away from establishments to eat and drink and to avoid going out if they feel bad.
The traditional end-of-year festivities, as well as the events on the occasion of the beginning of next year, should be canceled, if possible, advises the union. But New Year’s Eve countdown events, New Year’s shrine visits and old age day celebrations can continue if people are done with caution, he said. The union did not give any specific date for the start or end of the statement. The day of the next age is January 11th.
“At a time when the spread of infections across the country is getting worse, the Kansai union, with the same thoughts, issued the statement as a call to stop the spread of the infection,” Wakayama’s governor told reporters , Yoshinobu Nisaka, president of the union. Saturday.
The union includes the prefectures of Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama, Tottori and Tokushima, as well as the cities of Osaka and Sakai in Osaka Prefecture, Kyoto City and Kobe. It represents about 21 million people.
Other Kansai prefectures had already made similar requests before Saturday’s announcement. Last week, Kyoto, which usually attracts a large number not only from Kansai but from across the country during the New Year holidays, called on people to step up visits to the shrine and move away from establishments to eat and drink after 9 p.m.
Kyoto is also concerned about an increase in infections filling the limited number of hospital beds. Late last week, 14 prefecture hospitals warned residents to avoid going out to eat and, if possible, to postpone hospital visits and even surgeries due to the need for medical staff to treat patients seriously. patients, including coronaviruses.
The National Association of Governors held a meeting on Sunday and, while asking people to avoid crowds during the New Year holidays, asked the central government to consider gradually restarting its Going to Travel campaign on 12 from January to areas where the infection spreads. has slowed down. The central government announced that the discounted travel program would be suspended nationwide from Dec. 28 through Jan. 11.
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