Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike discusses the capital’s testing system to check for the novel coronavirus at a meeting at the metropolitan government on Oct. 30. (Chiaki Ogiwara)

Tokyo reported 157 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Nov. 9, the highest level for a Monday since the middle of August, according to metropolitan officials.

The last Monday the count exceeded the Nov. 9 figure was Aug. 17, when 161 new cases were logged.

Cases reported on Mondays are usually lower than those announced later in the week, such as Thursdays and Fridays. The figures on Mondays reflect infections confirmed about three days earlier, close to the weekend, when fewer people tend to be tested for the virus.

Alarmed by an uptick over the past week, Tokyo officials are urging residents to practice antivirus measures more vigorously as risks increase toward year-end when large numbers of people get together for parties.

Officials said this is a critical time to stem the spread of the virus.

The metropolitan government also said serious cases--patients on ventilators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, an ECMO lung bypass machine--were 35, down by one from Nov. 8.

Tokyo officials also said the overall total from July 31 to Oct. 6 was eight fewer than previously announced. The reduction came because patients who first tested positive in antigen tests were later cleared in more sophisticated PCR tests.

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