Emergency in Tokyo as Covid cases surge
With just a tenth of the world’s population, Europe remains the worst-affected region, with nearly 30% of global cases and deaths.
The Japanese 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, but 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.
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.
Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in Europe surpassed 25 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally. Europe has recorded at least 25,016,506 cases and 559,863 deaths since the start of the pandemic, recently reporting over a million new cases about every four days.
With just a tenth of the world’s population, Europe remains the worst-affected region, with nearly 30% of global cases and deaths.
The World Health Organization’s European branch on Thursday said more needed to be done to deal with the alarming situation brought on by recently discovered variants of the novel coronavirus.
Speaking at a press conference, the WHO’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge, called the current situation “a tipping-point in the course of the pandemic,” as Europe was both challenged by surging cases and new strains of the virus causing Covid-19. “Without increased control to slow its spread, there will be an increased impact on already stressed and pressurised health facilities,” Kluge said.
