The national total of COVID-19 cases exceeded 25,000 for the third day in a row, as Tokyo reported 5,074 new cases on Saturday.
Despite antivirus measures taken under the state of emergency and near-emergency in the hardest-hit areas, Japan is facing its biggest wave of infections to date, with pressure from the medial system showing no signs. of decrease.
The number of seriously ill according to the criteria of the Tokyo metropolitan government fell from three to 270. The metropolitan government also reported six coronavirus-related deaths.
The seven-day average of new cases in Tokyo rose from 4,231.1 in the previous week to 4,718.
Other large urban areas continued to record near-record records, with Kanagawa Prefecture recording 2,705 cases and nine deaths, Osaka Prefecture registering 2,556 and two, and Chiba Prefecture registering 1,761 cases and six deaths. Saitama and Fukuoka prefectures recorded 1,875 and 1,070 cases, respectively.
Elsewhere, Hyogo reported 1,025 cases, Hokkaido saw 579 infections, Okinawa confirmed 678 cases and Kyoto recorded 547. Records were recorded in Gunma, with 325 cases, Mie, with 427 infections, and Kochi, which saw 87 cases.
The rampant expansion of COVID-19 in Tokyo, which recorded 5,094 cases a week ago, has reached the level of disasters, experts said on Friday, warning of the possibility that not many cases have been detected.
Health care systems in the capital will collapse if infections remain out of control, experts said at a metropolitan government meeting on the situation of COVID-19.
The daily number of PCRs and other tests performed to detect the coronavirus is as low as around 13,000, although the metropolitan government says it is able to test 97,000 people a day.
People who need to get tested may not be able to do it quickly, said Masataka Inokuchi, deputy director of the Tokyo Medical Association.
“There may be many cases that have not been detected,” said Inokuchi, who asked the metropolitan government to provide more people.
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