THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 15, 2021 at 16:50 JST
Pedestrians in Tokyo’s Ginza district on Jan. 9 during the second state of emergency (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Tokyo reported 97 serious COVID-19 cases on Feb. 15, breaking below 100 for the first time since Jan. 2, while the number of new infections remained under 500 for the ninth straight day.
The number of newly confirmed infections was 266, which brought the capital’s daily average over the week through Feb. 15 to 378.6, or 68.2 percent of the preceding week, metropolitan government officials said.
In another positive sign for Tokyo, which remains under a state of emergency, the number of serious COVID-19 cases declined by six from the previous day to 97. The last time the figure was in double digits was on Jan. 2, when 94 serious cases were reported.
Tokyo defines serious cases as patients requiring ventilators or an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) device, which circulates blood through an artificial lung.
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