THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
September 23, 2020 at 18:47 JST
Tourists head to Tokyo Station on Sept. 19, the first day of the four-day holiday weekend. (Kazuyuki Ito)
Tokyo on Sept. 23 confirmed fewer than 100 new COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day, but one official said the lower numbers could be a result of less testing over the long weekend.
The latest daily tally, 59, marked the first time the figure has fallen below the 60 mark since June 30, when 54 new cases were reported.
“Some people refrained from going to hospitals during the four-day holiday period (that ended on Sept. 22), so we cannot say at this point whether the number of infections is actually declining,” a metropolitan government official said on Sept. 22.
Of the 59 new cases, 16 patients, the highest number, were in their 30s, followed by 14 in their 40s, 10 in their 20s, seven in their 70s, four in their 60s, three in their teens and another three in their 50s.
One child under the age of 10 and an eightysomething person also tested positive.
Government officials said the number of serious cases, those on ventilators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, also known as an ECMO lung bypass machine, dropped by two from the day before to 28 on Sept. 23.
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