Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks at a meeting of the government task force on novel coronavirus countermeasures on Feb. 26. (Kotaro Ebara)

The government confirmed it will lift the COVID-19 state of emergency early for six prefectures, but the four Tokyo-area prefectures will have to wait until the March 7 deadline.

“We will lift the state of emergency for six prefectures as of Feb. 28,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a government task force meeting on the evening of Feb. 26.

Suga explained that while the situation at medical institutions continued to be tight, it had improved in comparison with the most difficult periods of the pandemic.

He added that the numbers of new COVID-19 cases, those with serious symptoms and those hospitalized have decreased since the state of emergency was declared in January.

The government’s panel of experts on the health crisis earlier on Feb. 26 gave its consent to the move for an early lifting of the state of emergency. The task force meeting finalized the decision. 

The state of emergency will end on Feb. 28 for the three Kansai region prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo, the two central Japan prefectures of Aichi and Gifu, and Fukuoka on the main southern island of Kyushu.

But infection prevention measures will remain in place even after the state of emergency is lifted.

The governors of those six prefectures are expected to ease their requests to bars and restaurants to close operations at 8 p.m.

Such business establishments are now receiving 60,000 yen ($566) a day for their cooperation as a subsidy paid for by the central government.

Under the new plan, businesses that agree to close at 9 p.m. would receive 40,000 yen while those that close at 10 p.m. would receive 20,000 yen a day.

The prefectural governors will determine which businesses in which areas will be covered by the new closing times, but the central government will continue providing the subsidies to the local governments.

There will also be a gradual relaxation of restrictions on crowd sizes at events in the prefectures where the state of emergency is lifted.

The current upper limit is 5,000 participants. But the new plan would allow for audiences of either 5,000 or half of the capacity of the venue, whichever figure is larger. But the absolute upper limit will be 10,000.

The effects of that change will be monitored for about a month. If the rate of new infections appears to be under control, the upper limit of 10,000 will also be eliminated.

Sources said the government is not planning to resume the Go To Travel tourism promotion campaign at this stage. It will consider how the campaign should be handled while monitoring infection trends.

The experts’ panel also met on Feb. 25 and put together a number of proposals that would help restrain infections once the state of emergency was lifted.

With the cherry blossom viewing season just around the corner in some areas, the panel suggested that drinking and partying under the cherry trees would be frowned upon. The panel also proposed concentrated testing for COVID-19 in major entertainment districts.

(This article was written by Ayako Nakada and Keishi Nishimura.)

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