Photo/Illutration Health care workers at Tokyo Medical Center in the capital’s Meguro Ward receive their second shots of a COVID-19 vaccine on March 11. (Pool)

Tokyo confirmed 304 new COVID-19 cases on March 12, up three from the 301 cases reported a week ago, according to metropolitan government officials.

The latest tally brought the daily average for the week in the capital through March 12 to 273.6, or 100 percent of the figure for the preceding week.

The metropolitan government has set a weekly goal of reducing the average to 70 percent of the previous week.

The number of serious cases in Tokyo requiring ventilators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, also known as an ECMO lung bypass machine, dropped by two from the previous day to 37 on March 12, the officials said.

Of the 304 cases, 62 patients were in their 20s, followed by 59 in their 40s and 48 in their 30s. There were 61 patients aged 65 or older.

The metropolitan government is aiming to ease the strain on the capital’s health care system by lowering the number of cases to the stage 2 level by March 21, when the current state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures is due to be lifted.

Under the four-stage classification set by the central government’s expert panel on the COVID-19 pandemic, areas deemed at stage 2 are experiencing a gradual increase in new cases.

As of March 11, Tokyo had 2,668 COVID-19 patients, including those recuperating at home and other accommodation facilities, 1,301 hospitalized with the disease and 267 who meet the central government's definition of patients in serious condition.

To achieve its stage 2 target, the capital needs to reduce its number of COVID-19 patients to 2,100, bring the number of hospitalized patients to 1,250 and the number of those in serious condition down to 250, according to the metropolitan government.

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