Photo/Illutration Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura warns against travel this weekend at a news conference in Osaka on March 19. (Tatsuo Kanai)

The governors of the two most populated prefectures in the Kansai region urged residents to avoid cross-border travel this long weekend, warning that the already worsening COVID-19 situation could explode.

Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura on March 19 called on residents not to visit neighboring Hyogo Prefecture, where novel coronavirus infections have spread rapidly, unless such travel is urgent and necessary during the three-day weekend starting from March 20.

“An explosive outbreak of infections could happen at any moment (in both prefectures),” Yoshimura told reporters in the evening at the prefectural government’s office in Osaka’s Chuo Ward.

He said the health ministry has informed the prefectural government about an estimate made by health experts concerning the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

“In the worst-case scenario, the number of people with COVID-19 will be 3,374 and the number of severely compromised patients will be 227 in both prefectures by April 3,” according to the estimate.

The experts recommended a limit on travel between the two prefectures, Yoshimura said.

As of March 19, 119 people have been infected with the new coronavirus in Osaka Prefecture, which has a population of 8.8 million.

Yoshimura said his request is effective only during the weekend.

“If all social and economic activities are stopped completely, we would face another big problem,” he said, adding that the prefectural government will monitor the trend in the number of people infected.

In Hyogo Prefecture, where the population is 5.4 million, Governor Toshizo Ido also asked residents to avoid all unnecessary travel and large gatherings until March 24, two days longer than Osaka’s request.

Ido said the Hyogo prefectural government will decide on whether to extend that request after health experts give their views at a meeting in the prefecture scheduled for March 24.

The requests of the two governors were not based on revised legislation that gives the prime minister and the government greater authority to deal directly with the coronavirus outbreak.

UPSURGE IN HYOGO

As of 8 p.m. on March 19, 93 people have been confirmed infected in Hyogo Prefecture, and four of them have died.

The first confirmed novel coronavirus case in Hyogo Prefecture was reported on March 1. The following week until March 7, 10 more people tested positive.

From March 8 to 14, 57 new cases were confirmed, followed by 26 after March 15.

Initially, most of the patients in Hyogo Prefecture had attended a live music show at a club in Osaka.

But the tide changed on March 7, when a woman in her 80s tested positive after using a health care facility for elderly people in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture.

She died on March 18.

A total of 37 people, including other users and staff members of the facility, have also tested positive.

Multiple people have been confirmed infected at a hospital in Himeji, a certified child care facility in Kobe’s Higashi-Nada Ward, and other areas in Hyogo Prefecture.

TRAINS OPERATE AS USUAL

Trains connecting Osaka and Hyogo prefectures are expected to run on the usual timetable during the weekend.

Kazuaki Hasegawa, president of West Japan Railway Co. (JR West), said at a regular news conference on March 17 that the COVID-19 outbreak has already had a “considerable impact on a level different from the past.”

He said the number of users of major train lines in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area in the first half of March decreased 34 percent from the same period a year ago.

The JR Kobe Line’s new rapid service, which connects Osaka and Kobe stations in 25 minutes, normally averages 390,000 passengers a day.

“With the ridership already dropping deep, I cannot imagine how big the impact of the governors’ requests will be,” a JR West official said.

(This article was written by Shohei Sasagawa, Daisaku Takahashi, Takeshi Aose and Hiroya Furuta.)

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