Photo/Illutration Police officers go on patrol in Nakasu entertainment district in Fukuoka in April. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

FUKUOKA--Six men infected with COVID-19 are refusing to reveal the name of the hostess bar they visited in the Nakasu entertainment district here, where it is suspected they contracted the virus.

Two Fukuoka male customers who went to the kyabakura hostess bar on June 4 with four friends from Tokyo are among eight people confirmed infected with the virus in Fukuoka since June 10, the city government said June 16.

All six, who are in their 30s, refused to divulge the name of the bar during the city’s investigation.

The four Tokyo residents did not find out they were positive until after they had traveled back to the capital.

The two other infected people, a man and a woman, are staff members of kyabakura hostess bars in the Nakasu district. The woman also refused to disclose the name of the bar where she works.

Left on its own to track down the routes of the eight infections, the city government contacted 268 Nakasu district hostess bars, where hostesses entertain customers by chatting and drinking alcohol with them.

Fukuoka officials asked the bars to contact the city government immediately if any of their customers or staff exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, such as a fever.

Customers are not legally obliged to cooperate with the city’s investigation.

City officials expressed exasperation over the patients’ refusal to help trace their infection routes.

“Normally, we identify the bars, conduct PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests for anyone who had close contact with infected people and contain group infections. But this time we couldn’t obtain any cooperation from the customers,” a city official said.

“Unless we do something to pin down the routes, we run a great risk that the infection will spread throughout the Nakasu district. So we contacted the bars in writing to get their attention."

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