TOKYO (AP) – Japan announced on Friday that it would raise the level of coronavirus alert in Tokyo to allow tougher measures to reduce the rapid spread of a more contagious variant before the Summer Olympics.
Japan’s national vaccination mechanism has remained and most people in the capital have not yet been inoculated as infections have increased.
The high status announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will allow the governor of Tokyo to impose smaller opening hours of bars and restaurants, along with penalties for violators and compensation for those who comply. The measures will start on Monday and will continue until May 11.
Many of the cases in Tokyo have been related to nightlife and meals, although they have recently spread to offices, senior care institutions and schools, experts say.
Suga has also raised the alert level for Kyoto in western Japan and the southern Okinawa prefecture, where cases have risen in recent weeks. The new status will continue until May 5, the end of the Japanese “Golden Week” holidays, to discourage travel.
“We will do everything we can to contain the infections in the affected areas and to prevent them from spreading throughout the country,” Suga told reporters.
Under the measures, people are urged to avoid non-essential travel outside their cities, health officials will patrol bars and restaurants to ensure that safety measures are followed, and testing will be stepped up in care units for the elderly, said Suga.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike urged residents to avoid non-essential travel and practice social distancing. She asked bars and restaurants in many areas of the prefecture to close at 8 p.m.
“To protect Tokyo’s medical systems, we need to work much harder to further reduce human movement,” Koike said. “We need to reduce infections so that we don’t have a new rebirth at the time of the Olympics.”
“We have to endure this difficult time until vaccines are widely available,” she added.
Alert status was also raised on Monday for parts of three other prefectures – Osaka, neighboring Hyogo and northern Miyagi. There have been sharp increases in daily cases since early March, shortly after Japan reduced a partial and non-binding state of emergency that began in January.
With Friday’s additions, 15 cities in the six prefectures, including downtown Tokyo, are designated for high virus measures.
The steps come less than three weeks after the emergency was lifted for Tokyo, stressing the difficulty of balancing antivirus measures and the economy. Suga’s government has been criticized for being too slow to take antivirus measures out of reluctance to further damage the pandemic-affected economy.
The new alert status comes with mandatory orders, but only for businesses to close early, while measures for residents are just requests, and some experts are skeptical about their effect.
Dr. Shigeru Omi, head of a group of government experts, said many people are tired of the restrictions and have become less cooperative in response to demands, despite the spread of the new option.
“I think requests for cooperation can no longer effectively reduce infections,” Omi said, adding that medical systems will collapse unless Japan manages to prevent a major recurrence by June, when the elderly are due to recover. complete vaccinations. “We are in a very difficult time.”
Osaka has declared a medical emergency after its hospitals became overwhelmed by new cases and moved next week to the Olympic torch relay on public roads.
Just over one million people in Japan, or less than 1% of the population, have received the first of two vaccine doses, and the increase in cases could lead to the subsequent cancellation of Olympic-related events.
Vaccinations began in mid-February for medical workers. Older people are scheduled to take their photos from next week until the end of June. The rest of the population will probably have to wait until July, making it almost impossible for Japan to reach the so-called immunity of the herd before the Tokyo Olympics begin on July 23.