At a press conference on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide repeated the same rhetoric he had used the day before: “There are alarming conditions in some parts of Japan, but this is a circumstance for the government to call for a new state of emergency. “
Regionally, Tokyo has the highest number of cases, adding a record 367 on Thursday. This represented at most 30% of the national total that day.
Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko is asking citizens of the capital to avoid dining out, stay away from nightlife districts, avoid socializing with other people and drinking alcohol in bars.
Koike met Thursday with Tokyo officials and fitness experts. The assembly heard that about a quarter of the July 28 cases were attributed to restaurant meals.
Koike is asking karaoke parlors and other institutions that serve alcohol to restrict their hours of operation from five in the morning to ten at night, from August 3 to 31. The metropolitan government announces that it will give a refund of 200,000 yen, or about $1,900, to all homeowners. who comply.
But Koike says it’s not wise for corporations to suspend operations altogether. “It’s not realistic to prevent it completely, given the time we have to fight the virus,” he says.
Kitamura Ryohei runs a bar in the Shibuya district of the capital. He made the decision to comply with the guards and restrict its opening hours, saying, “there’s nothing we can do about it as cases increase. ” But he says he will. It will be even harder to stay in business because you can’t stay open at peak times.
“The money that the Tokyo government plans to offer us is enough to make up for the loss,” he said.
Other regional leaders are taking similar steps. In Ōshiaka, Governor Yoshimura Hirofumi asks others to drink alcohol in groups or socialize in teams of five or more.
Osaka on Wednesday recorded 221 new cases of the virus, the first time the figure has surpassed two hundred. People in their twenties accounted for more than 40% of the total.
Yoshimura says he believes one of the main tactics spreading the virus is youth parties and asks them to replace their behavior.
Okinawa Governor Tamaki Denny called for the closure of bars and restaurants in the center of the prefectural capital, Naha City, for two weeks.
The island region has reported a record number of new cases for 4 consecutive days, reaching Wednesday.
The cumulative number of positive cases in Japan is 35,521 as of July 30. The death toll rose to 1,020.