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Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has led the government’s Go To Travel crusade to domestic tourism despite on-the-job calls for a new state-of-emergency statement amid an increase in coronavirus infections in Japan.
The resolution came Friday when the number of new cases increased to 1,704, surpassing the previous record of 1,660 set a day earlier, according to a Kyodo News account based on official data. Health experts warn of a imaginable “third wave” of infections. .
While acknowledging the “obvious symptoms of an upward trend” in coronavirus cases in Tokyo, Osaka and Aichi prefectures, as well as Hokkaido, Suga asked the public to take “basic preventive measures” to prevent the spread of infections.
“The experts still do not feel that we are in a scenario where we have to institute a state of emergency,” Suga told reporters.
The government is working with local municipalities to conduct large-scale tests and dispatch medical corps of workers to spaces experiencing epidemics, he said.
The Prime Minister also asked his wardrobe members to face the stage with “the utmost vigilance.
In reaction to developing considerations about the resurgence of infections, the government said it is considering creating a new sideboard position with more powerful authority to monitor the country’s anti-virus measures.
Opposition parties have criticized the government’s reaction to the pandemic, saying that the most recent uptick in infections resulted from government measures to publicize domestic tourism, a sector heavily affected by the virus.
Kazuya Shimba, general secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, suggested the government review the advocacy initiative.
Citing the outbreak of infections in Hokkaido, a popular tourist destination in northern Japan, Shimba said progression “is clearly attributable to the campaign. “
“It is imaginable that movements (of people) will increase at the end of the year and in the new year. We deserve to seek qualified advice,” he said.
Tomoko Tamura, head of policy for the Communist Party of Japan, said the government ends the promotion crusade across the country.
“If infections expand further, it will be a blow to the tourism industry,” Tamura said.
As of Friday night, the total number of cases in Japan is 116,126, totaling about 700 of a cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama in February, the death toll has increased to nearly 1,900.
By prefecture, Tokyo recorded the number of new instances at 374, remaining above three hundred for the third consecutive day and raising the capital’s cumulative total to 34,144.
Osaka finished with a record 263 cases, followed by Hokkaido with 235.
The government declared a state of emergency in some parts of the country in early April, then prolonged it across the country, asking the public to stay home and calling for the closure of some businesses, to the detriment of the economy.
Suga said it sought to strike a balance between reducing the spread of COVID-19 and maintaining social and advertising activities.
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