Photo/Illutration Yasutoshi Nishimura, the state minister in charge of dealing with the COVID-19 health scare, responds to questions in the Upper House Cabinet Committee on Jan. 14. (Kotaro Ebara)

The state minister in charge of handling the novel coronavirus pandemic said it is possible more prefectures could be added to the state of emergency depending on new infection trends.

Yasutoshi Nishimura, the state minister in charge of economic revitalization who also heads the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, said the state of emergency could be expanded beyond the 11 prefectures currently subject to it.

“Additional prefectures might be included depending on the infection situation,” Nishimura said at an Upper House Cabinet Committee meeting on Jan. 14 in response to a question from Hideya Sugio, a member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

But Nishimura said a state of emergency would not be extended to regions where new infections are under control, pointing to areas such as the Tohoku region in northern Japan and the Sanin region on the Sea of Japan coast of western Honshu island.

“We have to be cautious about including such areas for coverage under the state of emergency at the present time,” Nishimura said.

“But we are keeping various options in mind to deal with worst-case scenarios in which there is no decrease (in new cases).”

Shigeru Omi, who chairs the government panel of experts dealing with the health scare, also appeared before the committee to address what should be done if the spread of infections is not contained within a month. He warned that declaring a state of emergency is not a silver bullet.

“It would not be possible to stop the spread with just a state of emergency declaration, so a stronger measure would be needed,” Omi said.

He said one option would be to allow prefectural governors to request that businesses in their jurisdictions temporarily suspend operations.

The state of emergency is currently set to expire on Feb. 7.

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