Photo/Illutration Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura responds to a question during an interview with The Asahi Shimbun. (Yoshiaki Arai)

OSAKA--Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura believes quasi-emergency measures should remain in place to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic even after the state of emergency is lifted on the June 20 deadline.

In an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Yoshimura reflected on the haste at which infection prevention measures were relaxed soon after the second state of emergency and blamed that move for the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases from late March.

“Rather than return to a normal situation (after the state of emergency is lifted), I believe quasi-emergency measures should be in place,” Yoshimura said.

He said the Osaka prefectural government was considering asking the central government to implement quasi-emergency measures once the state of emergency is lifted.

After the second state of emergency was lifted on March 1, the Osaka prefectural government ended its request for bars and restaurants to voluntarily shorten their business hours in areas outside Osaka city.

But that move, combined with the approach of spring vacation for students and a period of personnel transfers at companies in late March and early April led to a sharp increase in pedestrian traffic.

That, in turn, caused a spike in novel coronavirus infections from late March and from April 13, Osaka Prefecture recorded more than 1,000 new cases daily.

That put a tremendous strain on the medical care system and from late April until early May only about 10 percent of those recuperating at home or other accommodations were able to enter hospitals for treatment.

The Osaka prefectural government has labeled the period after March 1 the fourth wave of infections. By June 9, Osaka had logged 1,367 deaths from COVID-19, the largest number for a prefecture in Japan.

Osaka accounted for about 20 percent of the 5,956 total fatalities during that period.

The Osaka prefectural government established its own standards for deciding whether to ask the central government to lift the state of emergency in March.

But Yoshimura said partly due to his own insufficient explanation of what those standards meant, “A belief emerged among Osaka residents that they would be able to (move around more freely).”

The most dangerous time for a prefecture is when the mood in society is that “everything is all right," he added. "But it is difficult to stop such thinking from emerging.”

Based on that experience, Yoshimura said there was a need to have a common understanding among Osaka residents that infection prevention measures would only gradually be relaxed. That meant the quasi-emergency measures were needed, he added.

Such measures were implemented in Osaka from April 5 and bars and restaurants in Osaka city were asked to close at 8 p.m. while other establishments in the prefecture were asked to shut down at 9 p.m.

After the third state of emergency was implemented from April 25, it took about two weeks for COVID-19 numbers to drop in Osaka. While the numbers have fallen under 200 per day since June 4, Yoshimura raised more concerns about the mutant coronavirus strain first found in India.

He said caution had to be exercised from mid- to late-July as students will enter their summer vacation breaks and there would be more movement among families and young people.

“If the India strain should spread during that period, we could end up with the same situation (as the fourth wave),” Yoshimura said. “I feel there is the possibility of a fifth wave at that time because vaccines will still not have reached a large portion of the population.”

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