THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 23, 2021 at 17:15 JST
The Tokyo metropolitan government building in Tokyo's Shinjuku district (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Tokyo confirmed 535 fresh cases of COVID-19 on May 23, almost the same level as last Sunday, metropolitan officials said.
On May 16, new cases stood at 542.
In Osaka Prefecture, the daily figure for new infection cases on May 23 fell below the 300 mark for the first time since March 29. Prefectural authorities confirmed 274 new infection cases and 14 deaths across the prefecture, raising cumulative fatalities to 2,128.
In Toyama Prefecture, authorities confirmed 64 new infection cases on May 23, exceeding the previous record of 34 on May 19.
For Tokyo, the seven-day case average over the week through May 23 came to 649.4, down by 19.5 percent from the preceding week.
Of the 535 new infections, 163 patients were in their 20s, followed by 90 in their 30s, 79 in their 40s and 67 in their 50s. Sixty-four people were aged 65 or older.
The number of serious cases stood at 61, down one from the day earlier.
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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