Photo/Illutration Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato speaks at a news conference on July 27. (Koichi Ueda)

The government as early as July 30 is expected to announce a COVID-19 state of emergency for three prefectures bordering Tokyo, which all posted record numbers of new infections, sources said.

Osaka Prefecture, which confirmed more than 700 new infections on July 28 for the second consecutive day, will likely fall under the state of emergency, as well, they said.

Olympic host Tokyo is currently under a state of emergency, while pre-emergency measures are being applied in the four other prefectures.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference on July 28 that the government will decide on whether to expand the emergency declaration as soon as it receives requests from local governments.

Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa said on July 28 that he and the governors of Saitama and Chiba will jointly ask the central government on July 29 to issue a state of emergency for their jurisdictions.

“Infections are increasing sharply,” Kuroiwa said. “We are facing an extremely big challenge of how to curb the flow of people. We need to share a sense of crisis with Tokyo by calling for an emergency declaration for three neighboring prefectures.”

The highly contagious Delta variant is rapidly spreading, mainly in the greater Tokyo area.

Tokyo reported 3,177 new COVID-19 cases on July 28, the first time its daily count topped 3,000, while the single-day tally for all of Japan exceeded 9,000 for the first time.

The government initially planned to monitor the infection situation and see the local governments’ responses before considering expanding the state of emergency. Officials have said progress in inoculating elderly people has helped curb the number of seriously-ill patients.

But a spike in new infections after the four-day weekend, which ended on July 25, was much sharper than expected, prompting the government to take quicker action.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga held a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers on July 28 at the prime minister’s office to discuss anti-virus measures as he did the previous day.

(This article was written by Keishi Nishimura and Yushin Adachi.)

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