The Tokyo authorities called on its inhabitants to avoid unnecessary departures and prioritize telework, as well as urging shops selling alcohol to close earlier in an attempt to neutralize an increase in coronavirus contagion and concerns that the health system will collapse in the country.” I would like to ask the people of Tokyo to avoid as much as possible un indispensable exits, to prevent an increase in the number of infections,” said the capital’s governor, Yuriko Koike, at a press conference. The numbers of contagion and deaths are relatively low in Japan – it accumulates 135,400 contagions and some 2,000 deaths – but the country is on “maximum alert” to the sustained increase in the number of daily cases.
Yuriko Koike, governor of Tokyo. | Photo: Reuters.
These measures, which include an order to the population for those who can work from their homes, are not mandatory. During the state of emergency declared in the first pandemic wave last April, there were also no penalties for people who did not remain at home or shops that refused to close. The governor also asked shops selling alcohol that, starting Saturday, and for three weeks, close at 22 o’clock, promising that companies that do so will get aid, the AFP news agency reported.” The health system risked collapsing across the country”Japan’s medical association warned that “the health system was at risk of collapsing across the country” and said that “if the number of infections increases rapidly, we will not have (enough) beds for coronavirus patients and other” patients. Last week, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared japan on “maximum alert” after recording a record number of daily infections, and the government had to give up a controversial campaign to promote domestic tourism.
