TOKYO (AP) – Japan announced on Friday that it will raise the level of coronavirus alert in Tokyo to allow tougher measures to curb the rapid spread of a more contagious variant before the Summer Olympics.
Japan’s national vaccination drive has been delayed and most people in the capital have not yet been inoculated as infections have increased.
The high status announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will allow the Tokyo governor to demand shorter opening hours for bars and restaurants, along with punishments for offenders and compensation for those who comply. Measures will begin on Monday and continue through May 11.
Many of Tokyo’s cases have been related to nightlife and food, although they have recently spread to offices, senior care centers and schools, according to experts.
Suga also raised the level of Kyoto alert in western Japan and the southern island prefecture of Okinawa, where cases have risen in recent weeks. The new status will continue until May 5, the end of Japan’s “Golden Week” holiday, to deter travel.
“We will do everything we can to contain infections in the affected areas and prevent them from spreading across the country,” Suga told reporters.
Under the measures, people are asked to avoid non-essential travel outside their cities, health officials will patrol bars and restaurants to ensure that safety measures are observed and tests on facilities are increased. care for the elderly, Suga said.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike urged residents to avoid non-essential travel and practice social distancing. He asked bars and restaurants in many areas of the prefecture to close at 8 p.m.
“To protect medical systems in Tokyo, we need to work much harder to further reduce the movement of people,” Koike said. “We need to curb infections so we don’t have another resurgence at the time of the Olympics.”
“We have to endure this difficult time until vaccines are widely available,” he added.
The state of alert was also raised on Monday for parts of three other prefectures: Osaka, neighbors of Hyogo, and Miyagi, in the north. They have had sharp increases in daily cases since early March, shortly after Japan reduced a partial, non-binding state of emergency that began in January.
With Friday’s additions, 15 cities in the six prefectures, including central Tokyo, are designated for high virus measurements.
The steps come less than three weeks after the emergency withdrawal in Tokyo, which highlights the difficulty of balancing antivirus measures and the economy. The Suga government has been criticized for being too slow to implement reluctant antivirus measures to further damage the pandemic-affected economy.
The new state of alert comes with binding orders, but only companies can close soon, while measures for residents are only requests and some experts are skeptical about their effect.
Dr. Shigeru Omi, head of a group of government experts, said many people are fed up with the restrictions and have become less cooperative in responding to requests despite the spread of the new variant.
“I believe cooperation requests can no longer effectively reduce infections,” Omi said, adding that medical systems will collapse unless Japan manages to prevent a major resurgence until June, when the elderly they will need to complete the vaccines. “We are in a very difficult time.”
Osaka has declared a medical emergency after its hospitals overflowed with new cases and has moved the relay of next week’s Olympic torch to the public thoroughfare.
Just over a million people in Japan, or less than 1% of the population, have received the first dose of vaccine, and the increase in cases can lead to the cancellation of events related to Olympics.
Inoculations began in mid-February for medical workers. Elderly people are expected to receive the shots from next week until the end of June. It is likely that the rest of the population will have to wait until about July, making it almost impossible for Japan to achieve the so-called immunity of the herd before the Tokyo Olympics begin on July 23rd.