THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 17, 2020 at 19:10 JST
Pedestrians walk across a crossing near Shibuya Station in Tokyo on Dec. 13. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A record 3,059 new cases of the novel coronavirus across Japan were confirmed as of 5:50 p.m. on Dec. 17, as Tokyo logged an alarming jump to 822 new infections, the highest ever.
The nationwide figure exceeded the 3,039 posted on Dec. 12. The figure for Dec. 12 was revised after the initial report.
The capital's figure for Dec. 17 soared past the previous record of 678 COVID-19 cases logged the previous day.
Of the 822 new patients, those aged 65 or older accounted for 112, also a record number.
Sixty-six patients were classified as having 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 dropped by three from the previous day.
Kanagawa Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture both reported daily records with 319 and 54 cases, respectively.
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