Photo/Illutration Many restaurants and stores are closed in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district on April 10. (The Asahi Shimbun)

Top priority now should go toward stemming a further spread of infections of the new coronavirus as quickly as possible.

The central and local governments should work together to rack their brains over what they should do toward achieving that ultimate goal.

Local authorities in Tokyo and elsewhere have begun requesting entertainment establishments and other businesses to shut down following the central government’s April 7 declaration of a state of emergency. The National Governors’ Association has recommended the central government compensate businesses for their losses if they comply with the closure requests.

The central government, however, remains opposed to the idea. For example, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the state minister of economic revitalization, reiterated on April 11 that the central government has no intention to compensate businesses for their closures.

Certainly, the special measures law for dealing with the virus outbreak provides no compensation for businesses that have bowed to closure requests.

The businesses covered by closure requests are not the only ones that are impacted. Other parties, including related industries that supply goods to those businesses, are also affected. And it is never easy to establish how their losses should be calculated.

Speediness should be placed ahead of everything else, given that the public health care system is on the verge of collapse. We cannot afford to spend time on designing a rigorous system. That said, burdens of closures should not be imposed on business operators alone.

The state of emergency declaration set the goal of reducing interpersonal contact by 70 to 80 percent. Broad-based cooperation of the public is key to achieving that goal.

Assistance should be given to businesses so they can shut their operations without anxiety.

To cope with the spread of virus infections, the central government has worked out an emergency economic relief package, which includes providing up to 1 million yen ($9,200) in cash to individual business owners, and a maximum of 2 million yen in cash to small and midsize enterprises, if their sales have dropped by half or more.

For starters, prompting businesses to comply with closure requests should be defined as another objective of the relief package.

The central government should clearly state that the terms and conditions of the payments, including their eligible recipients and their sums, may be reviewed flexibly in response to circumstances. It should start studying the specifics of what those terms should be.

Burdens of the fixed costs that businesses should continue to pay even during their closures, such as rents, fuel and lighting, do vary by area, sector, size and other attributes of those businesses. Local governments are well-versed in the fine subtleties of those kinds in their respective jurisdictions.

The Tokyo metropolitan government has decided to pay “infection spread prevention cooperation fees” to small and midsize enterprises and other businesses that have agreed to close or shorten their working hours. Tight finances, however, have led some local governments to hesitate in issuing closure requests.

Measures to block infections should not be delayed by disparities in financial capabilities. It is up to the central government to support local governments.

The emergency economic relief package has set aside 1 trillion yen in extraordinary subsidies for local governments to use at their disposal in fighting the virus outbreak. The central government should exchange views closely with local governments and expand the amount of the subsidies as the need arises.

The coronavirus outbreak will probably make it difficult for the central and local governments to implement projects they have budgeted for according to their initial plans.

Nonessential projects should be boldly reviewed as part of the efforts to set aside financial means for fighting the virus outbreak.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 12