State of emergency extended

TOKYO: Japan yesterday extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas until the end of May to stem a surge in Covid19 cases fuelled by the spread of virus variants just months before the Tokyo Olympics.

The government had hoped a ‘‘short and powerful’’ state of emergency would contain a fourth wave of infection, but new cases in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka are still at high levels, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said, announcing the decision.

Extending the state of emergency to May 31 from May 11 will leave a margin of fewer than two months before the July 23 start of the Games.

‘‘There is a critical shortage of hospital beds in Osaka and Hyogo,’’ Suga said at a government task force meeting. Hyogo is the prefecture west of Osaka.

Earlier, Economy Minister

Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is also in charge of pandemic measures, said variant strains of the virus were spreading rapidly and the government was worried Tokyo could also run out of hospital beds soon.

Osaka reported 1005 new cases yesterday while Tokyo had 907. Nationwide, Japan has recorded 618,197 cases of infection and 10,585 deaths from Covid19.

The government also placed Aichi prefecture, home to Toyota Motor Corp, and Fukuoka prefecture in the southwest under a state of emergency — joining Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto, where current measures began on April 25.

The northern island of Hokkaido and two other prefectures were added to regions under a ‘‘quasi state of emergency’’, now totalling eight of Japan’s 47 prefectures. — Reuters