Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike holds a news conference on July 2. (Shinnosuke Ito)

Tokyo confirmed 716 fresh cases of COVID-19 on July 3, marking two straight weeks in which the number of new patients exceeded that of the same day of the previous week.

The figure for July 3 was 182 more than the previous Saturday, metropolitan government officials said.

For the week ending July 4, the daily average of new cases was 563.1, which represented an 18.3-percent increase over the previous week.

The three-day average of government-administered COVID-19 tests as of July 2 was 7,174.

Of the latest cases, 246 patients were in their 20s, 166 in their 30s, 109 in their 40s and 71 in their 50s. Forty patients were 65 or older.

There were 50 COVID-19 patients with symptoms serious enough to require use of a ventilator or other equipment to breathe. The figure was a decrease of four from the previous day.