Photo/Illutration A man wearing a protective mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walks on a pedestrian crossing on Dec. 12 in Tokyo. (AP Photo)

Fresh COVID-19 cases across the nation as of 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 12 reached 3,024, breaking the daily record of 2,972 set just two days earlier.

A record 621 patients in Tokyo were confirmed with COVID-19 on Dec. 12, while Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan reported nearly double the number of cases over the previous day.

Other prefectures with high numbers on Dec. 12 were Osaka with 429, Aichi with 206 and Hokkaido with 189.

The figure for Iwate, which only reported its first case of the novel coronavirus on July 29, was 43, compared with 22 on Dec. 11. Cases in Iwate have surged since mid-November, bringing the tally there to date to 295.

Tokyo marked its previous daily high of 602 patients on Dec. 10. Of the latest cases, 68 were deemed to be serious.

This week's grim figures led a government panel of experts to raise red flags about the need for tougher measures to deal with the spread of the pandemic.

One proposal was to temporarily suspend the Go To Travel program in areas such as Tokyo, but Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga refused to heed the advice.

In Tokyo, 68 patients have severe symptoms that require the use of a ventilator or an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) device, which circulates blood through an artificial lung. The figure was an increase of one from the previous day, according to the metropolitan government.

Of the new patients in Tokyo, 181 were in their 20s, 119 in their 30s, 89 in their 40s and 80 in their 50s. There were also 77 new patients aged 65 or older.

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