The state of emergency declared over the novel coronavirus pandemic has been extended by one month for Tokyo and nine prefectures.

The restaurant, tourism and other hard-hit industries are running out of resources. The government needs to meticulously design measures to help affected businesses and workers ride out the effects of the extended restrictions.

The government will continue focusing infection-control efforts on ensuring shorter business hours at restaurants, bars and other eateries.

The special measures law to deal with the pandemic was revised on Feb. 3 to allow for imposing administrative fines on businesses that refuse requests for shorter hours.

A major problem is that the government’s financial support to struggling businesses is, from the beginning, out of line with a supplementary resolution to the legislation, which calls for support based on “the degrees of damage” to those businesses.

The maximum amount of cooperation money the government will provide to restaurants and other establishments that comply with shorter-hour requests is unchanged at 60,000 yen ($568) a day even after the revision.

Yasutoshi Nishimura, state minister in charge of economic revitalization who heads government efforts to deal with the COVID-19 health crisis, says the government is providing support based on the scale of businesses.

Nishimura cites as an example a program to provide subsidies to help struggling businesses keep employees on their payrolls based on the numbers of employees involved.

But many large establishments have no choice but to operate as usual to stay in business. To ensure shorter business hours, the government should redesign the program to provide cooperation money in accordance with sales or other indicators of the scale of operations.

Suppliers to eating establishments are not eligible for the program, nor are movie theaters, pachinko parlors and other businesses that are encouraged--but not formally requested--to shorten operating hours.

Among those businesses, small and midsize operators are instead eligible for a one-off cash allowance if sales have sharply declined, but the amount is 600,000 yen for the two months when the state of emergency is in place (300,000 yen for sole proprietors), far smaller than the cooperation money available to restaurants.

Moreover, the one-off allowance is offered only to those affected by the state of emergency declaration. It is unclear whether businesses outside areas covered by the declaration are eligible.

Some local governments outside areas covered by the declaration have issued their own requests for shorter business hours.

The amount of the one-off allowance should be increased, and the program should also be revised to provide support to a wider range of businesses struggling due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the government has expanded a program to provide interest-free loans to support the livelihoods of people whose incomes have fallen so that up to 600,000 yen is available in additional loans (equivalent of support for three months).

Enhancing the safety net is a welcome move, but people who take out an additional loan could find it difficult to pay back.

The government should not only provide support to help them live independently but also ensure that a system to forgive loans will be utilized by borrowers who still fail to get out of financial hardships.

The government will also expand a program to make payments to employees who cannot receive a closure allowance from their employers to cover workers at large companies as well.

It is an appropriate move as a temporary response during an emergency given the number of successive cases where nonregular employees of major restaurant chains could not receive a closure allowance.

We urge the government to swiftly implement the measure while listening to the voices of concerned people.

A multi-layered framework is needed to provide meticulous and effective relief for businesses and workers battered by the pandemic.

However, people may be confused if too many programs are set up.

The central and local governments should offer a one-stop service to provide counsel to people seeking relief while stepping up efforts to ensure that available programs are widely known and accurately understood.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 7