The Japanese government plans to expand the ongoing COVID-19 state of emergency beyond Tokyo and the Osaka area and extend it to the end of May in a bid to bring down infections and ease the strain on hospitals, Kyodo cited senior officials as saying today. Restrictions in effect since April 25 for eating establishments and large commercial facilities had been set to ease next Tuesday. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to declare a state of emergency in Aichi and Fukuoka prefectures and announce the extension on Friday, the officials said. The measures in place in Tokyo and the western prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo include a ban on restaurants serving alcohol with fines for noncompliance and nonbinding requests for department stores and movie theaters to temporarily close. Spectators have been barred from attending large events such as sports games, businesses encouraged to have employees work from home, and services on public transportation pared down. The measures have been successful in reducing the number of people out and about, Suga told reporters after meeting with members of his Cabinet including health minister Norihisa Tamura and Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister in charge of Japan's COVID-19 response, adding he will decide the details of the extension after hearing from health experts. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said the situation in the capital has not improved enough to lift the state of emergency, voicing concern over the spread of highly contagious variants of the coronavirus.
