TOKYO — Japan warned Thursday that a new wave of COVID infections appears to be spreading and suggested others take extra care before a long weekend and summer school holidays approach.
Tokyo’s 16,878 new cases on Wednesday were from February, while the national count topped 90,000, in a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in degrees not seen since earlier this year. The Japanese capital recorded 16,662 new cases on Thursday.
In his first press conference since the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and after the ruling coalition won elections on Sunday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said maximum caution is needed.
“The coronavirus is spreading across the country and into all age groups,” he said, urging other people to make sure they get their boosters, especially those in their twenties and thirties, whose vaccination rate is lagging behind.
“As the holidays approach, interaction between all generations will increase. “
Additional steps included creating a fourth vaccine for a greater diversity of people and creating loose test sites at exercise stations and airports, he said.
“At this stage, the number of other seriously ill people and deaths is still low. But the number of hospital beds used, down at this stage, is increasing,” Kishida said.
But he added that there were still no movement restrictions and that he had no immediate plans to tighten border controls above the existing level, which, with tourists limited to small-group tours, remains one of the strictest in the world.
Some experts warn that cases may rise sharply in the coming weeks.
The capital has raised its alert point to the point. The BA. 5 variant accounts for more than a portion of the new cases.
“Tomorrow we will hold an assembly on what steps to take this summer,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told an assembly on Thursday, adding that the assembly would assess qualified opinion and national trend.
Kishida also paid tribute to Abe, who killed at a crusade rally last Friday at the hands of an unemployed man with a homemade gun, adding that he believed there were flaws in Abe’s security.
“Abe has many legacies in his call on a wide range of issues,” he said.
“This includes taking on the heavy task of being our country’s minister with exceptional leadership and action for 8 years and 8 months, the longest in fashion history, amid national and global tensions. “
He said Japan would hold a state funeral for him in the fall. The last state funeral of a former prime minister was that of Shigeru Yoshida in 1967.
(Additional reporting via Elaine Lies, Mariko Katsumura, Rocky Swift; written via Elaine Lies; Editing through Clarence Fernandez and Kim Coghill)
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