Photo/Illutration The Tokyo metropolitan government building and other high-rise buildings in the capital’s Shinjuku Ward. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

While Tokyo recorded less than 200 new COVID-19 cases for the third straight day on Sept. 1, it had the second report of infections in an island chain under the metropolitan government's jurisdiction.

There were 170 new cases in the capital on Sept. 1. There were also 29 patients considered with severe symptoms requiring the use of a ventilator or an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) device, which circulates blood through an artificial lung. The figure was a decrease of three from the previous day.

Meanwhile, a family of four on Oshima island of the Izu chain was confirmed infected with COVID-19. The last time a resident of an outlying island was found infected was in May on Mikurajima island.

According to Oshima town officials, the four cases are parents in their 30s and two children under 10. Antigen tests by Sept. 1 confirmed the infections.

It is still unclear how the family became infected because they had not left the island. The four will be flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tokyo for treatment.

The local public health office is looking into anyone the family of four may have come into close contact with.

For the capital as a whole on Sept. 1, 48 of the new cases were of people in their 20s, 38 in their 30s, 28 in their 40s, 17 in their 50s, 15 in their 60s, 10 teenagers, six in their 70s, five in their 80s, two under 10 and one in their 90s.

The daily average for the week ending Aug. 31 was 198.4, the first time the figure has been below 200 since July 16.

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