Health experts fear the government acted hastily and rashly in deciding to lift its COVID-19 state of emergency for six prefectures earlier than for four others in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area.

The government approved the decision on Feb. 26, the day its panel of experts met prior to a task force gathering that approved the lifting of the state of emergency for Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Aichi, Gifu and Fukuoka prefectures.

During the meeting that continued for an hour beyond schedule, a number of experts raised doubts about whether now was the right time to lift the curbs that have seen sharp declines in the daily number of people infected with the novel coronavirus.

Others noted the presence of variant strains, calling them a troubling development, and some expressed concern about a possible resurgence in new infections with spring vacation looming for students.

“Many of the views expressed were critical,” health minister Norihisa Tamura acknowledged when he spoke with reporters.

Governors of the six prefectures had submitted requests to the central government for the state of emergency to be lifted in their jurisdictions ahead of the scheduled March 7 deadline, citing concerns about the impact on their local economies caused by requests to shorten business hours.

They also noted sharp declines in the number of new COVID-19 cases and other benchmarks which showed their areas were no longer at the most serious stage 4 in terms of infection trends.

Even though they stressed the importance of resuming social and economic activity, they remained keenly aware of the danger of another spike in new infections and the need to maintain steps to prevent a resurgence.

For example, heavily populated Osaka Prefecture will reduce the area covered by the request to shorten business hours to just Osaka city rather than the entire prefecture.

Moreover, bars and restaurants in the city will be allowed to stay open an hour later until 9 p.m.

Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura noted that it would be essential to remain vigilant given that the period from mid-March until early April is normally a time when graduations and the new school year begins. It is also a time when mass personnel transfers take place at the corporate level.

Experts also raised concerns about a rebound in new infections as people start venturing out like they used to.

“In light of concerns about a spread of variant strains in the future, another state of emergency may well have to be declared during the series of national holidays in May,” stated Satoshi Hori, a professor of infection control at Tokyo's Juntendo University.

He also noted that vaccinations of senior citizens, the most vulnerable and significant portion of the population, will likely not begin on a wide scale until late April.

“I believe it will be difficult to realistically achieve a 50-percent inoculation rate by the end of the year,” Hori said, adding that the figure is often used in determining whether herd immunity has been achieved.

Given prevailing uncertainties about the vaccine supply, he said it was daft to regard vaccines as a fallback measure in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

Hori also pointed out that many hospital beds for COVID-19 patients with serious symptoms are now being occupied by senior citizens who tend to remain hospitalized for longer periods.

“If there is another spike in community infections, the tight situation facing medical institutions will arrive much more quickly than the third wave of infections now under way,” Hori said.

Tetsuya Matsumoto, a professor of infectious diseases at the International University of Health and Welfare in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, raised concerns that lifting the state of emergency in the six prefectures might lead residents to become less cautious in the four prefectures where the state of emergency continues to be in place: Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba.

“I believe it will be difficult to further reduce the number of new cases in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area,” Matsumoto said.

He proposed that the state of emergency be extended beyond the March 7 deadline and kept in place until late March.

If economic activity is to return to normal over the long haul, Matsumoto said the number of new patients per 100,000 people over the course of a week would have to be around one. As of Feb. 24, the figure was 15 for Tokyo.

(Ryo Aibara and Ayako Nakada contributed to this article.)