Emergency in Tokyo as Covid-19 cases spike

TOKYO/SHANGHAI: Japan’s government declared a month-long coronavirus state of emergency in the greater Tokyo area on Thursday as the capital reported another record surge in daily infections.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga described a “great sense of crisis” as he announced the measure, which begins on Friday and is less strict than the harsh lockdowns seen elsewhere or even the country’s first virus emergency last spring.

It primarily targets restaurants and bars, which will be asked to stop serving alcohol by 7pm and close an hour later.

Suga made a special appeal to young people to abide by the requests, saying that more than half of recent new infections in greater Tokyo were among the under-30s. “Please act... in order to save precious lives of your parents, grandfathers, grandmothers and friends,” he said.

In Tokyo and three surrounding areas that petitioned the government to make the move, businesses will also be urged to maximise teleworking with the goal of reducing commuter traffic by 70%. Japanese law does not allow authorities to enforce cooperation with the requests, although the government is planning legislation permitting fines for businesses that do not comply.

Tokyo recorded 2,447 new cases on Thursday - shattering the previous record of 1,591 logged a day earlier, and representing a sizeable chunk of the 7,490 new cases reported nationwide. Still, Japan’s outbreak remains comparatively small, with around 3,700 Covid-19 deaths overall.

China: City of 11mn stops people from leaving

Shijiazhuang, the largest city in northern China’s Hebei province barred people from leaving on Thursday in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the country reported the biggest rise in daily infections in more than five months.

Hebei accounted for 51 of the 52 local cases reported by the National Health Commission on

Thursday. This compared with 20 cases reported in the province, which surrounds Beijing, a day earlier.

Authorities in Shijiazhuang, home to 11 million people, have launched mass testing drives and banned gatherings to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. In addition to barring people from leaving the city, people and vehicles from areas of the city considered high-risk were not allowed to leave their district, authorities said. Hebei officially entered a “wartime mode” on Tuesday.