Photo/Illutration A restaurant sign seen on Nov. 28 near Shibuya Center-gai street in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward announces that its hours will be cut to 10 p.m. for the time being from Nov. 28. (Takayuki Kakuno)

Japan is being swamped by a third wave of COVID-19 cases, with the nation reporting a new daily high of 2,685 infections on Nov. 28. 

The count, as of 9 p.m. the same day, marked the third consecutive day that more than 2,500 new cases were logged over a 24-hour period.

Tokyo registered 561, the highest of the country’s 47 prefectures, followed by 463 in Osaka Prefecture and 252 in Hokkaido.

There were 14 new deaths reported nationwide on Nov. 28 due to the novel coronavirus. 

The daily count of new cases on Nov. 28 in Tokyo pushed the accumulated total of COVID-19 patients in the capital past 40,000.

The pace of the spread of the disease is accelerating, according to metropolitan officials.

It took about two months for Tokyo to see the overall total of cases climb to 30,000 from 20,000.

From there, it took only about a month for the number to hit 40,000.

The number of patients in serious condition is also trending upward across the nation, according to the health ministry.

As of Nov. 27, a record 440 patients were suffering from severe symptoms.

The number of patients meeting Tokyo’s definition of serious cases--requiring ventilators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) devices--rose by six from the day before to 67 in the capital on Nov. 28. That marked a new high since a state of emergency was lifted for Tokyo over the pandemic in late May.

Five other prefectures broke their daily records of new cases on Nov. 28, with Yamagata recording six; Ibaraki, 66; Chiba, 113; Mie, 29; and Oita, 18.

In Mie Prefecture, a cluster of 10 cases was reported among recruits attending the prefectural police academy.

Following outbreaks in southern Ibaraki Prefecture, prefectural officials urged residents in eight municipalities, including Tsuchiura and Tsukuba, to stay home from Nov. 28 to Dec. 13 unless for essential reasons.

This is the second time the prefectural government has made such a request since the central government placed the entire nation under a state of emergency in April to stem the spread of the virus.

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