Japan witnesses surge in COVID cases ahead of Summer Olympic Games

Tokyo [Japan]: Japan has been witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases as it reported over seven lakh coronavirus infections till Sunday ahead of the Summer Olympic Games scheduled to be held in the country’s capital Tokyo on July 23.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday, the country registered 7,14,274 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 12,236 deaths till yesterday. As of May 15, a total of 5,593,436 vaccine doses have been administered in the country.

Meanwhile, Japan opened large-scale vaccination facilities on Monday morning in Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture aiming to inoculate country’s 36 million seniors by the end of July, as per NHK News.

The vaccination centre located in the central Otemachi neighborhood of the Japanese capital can provide shots to up to 10,000 people a day. It has been opened with the support of Self-Defense Forces (SDF), as per Sputnik report.

As Tokyo will host the Olympics from July 23, concerns are growing over the spread of more infectious coronavirus variants and the sluggish vaccine rollout in the country.

In areas placed under the state of emergency, restaurants are being told to close by 8 pm and refrain from serving alcohol or offering karaoke services, Kyodo News reported.

It was further reported that in an effort to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency, the third since the start of the pandemic, in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo from April 25 to May 11, later adding Aichi and Fukuoka from Wednesday and extending it to May 31.

Japan yesterday confirmed around 4,050 daily coronavirus cases, according to a tally based on local government reports, with Hokkaido marking 605, Tokyo 535 and Osaka 274. Okinawa logged an additional 156 infections after hitting a record 231 the previous day.