With a state of emergency looming, Tokyo on Wednesday was on the verge of reporting a record 1,591 cases of the deadly new coronavirus, the metropolitan government said.
Tokyo also saw the number of severely ill patients based on the capital’s standards rose to 113, up by two from the previous day and the most on record for the capital. The cumulative number of infections in the capital stood at 66,343.
The news came as a number of prefectures in the country matched or eclipsed daily record caseloads and a day after the country recorded new record highs for COVID-19 infections, deaths related to the disease and the number of severe cases.
Rising infections have driven Tokyo and the surrounding areas to the highest level of a four-stage alert, prompting regional governors to urge for a declaration of emergency that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to announce on Thursday.
The health ministry held a meeting of infectious disease experts on Wednesday, the second in as many days. They have called for stricter and longer countermeasures, while Suga has sought a more limited response to avoid damaging the economy.
“Even if we take strong measures immediately, it will be difficult to bring the Tokyo metropolitan area down to stage 3 by the end of January,” Takaji Wakita, chief of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, told reporters after the meeting.
Without new measures, daily infections in Tokyo could nearly triple to 3,500 per day by February and hit 7,000 by March, according to simulations by Kyoto University scientist Hiroshi Nishiura. An emergency declaration would need to last at least two months to bring infections to manageable levels, he said.
On Tuesday, the nationwide tally of new cases was 4,913, while the single-day death toll linked to the virus reached 76, both record highs. It also saw the number of patients with severe COVID-19 cases rise by 40 from the previous day to a record 771.
The previous daily record for nationwide cases was 4,520, marked on Dec. 31.
The daily COVID-19 counts in several prefectures rose above or near record highs, many set over the last month, according to a tally by public broadcaster NHK. These included:
- 364 in Aichi Prefecture, which saw its daily count rise above 300 for the first time.
- 311 in Chiba Prefecture, a record for the second straight day.
- 248 in Hyogo Prefecture, besting the previous record of 231.
- 132 in Tochigi Prefecture, a single-day high.
- 102 in Gifu Prefecture, a new daily record.
- 87 in Shizuoka Prefecture, a new high.
- 80 in Miyazaki Prefecture, setting a single-day high.
- 59 in Gunma Prefecture, which was the second-highest daily total.
- 50 in Shiga Prefecture, a fresh high.
- 33 in Mie Prefecture, a new record.
- 26 in Oita Prefecture, which matched the previous record.
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