Photo/Illutration This image from an electron microscope shows the novel coronavirus. (Provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

Japan’s total number of COVID-19 cases soared beyond 1 million on Aug. 6 amid the unprecedented rapid spread of the novel coronavirus across the nation.

It took about six weeks for the accumulated number of novel coronavirus infections to increase from 700,000 to 800,000, while the figure rose from 800,000 to 900,000 over a four-week period.

Japan reached 1 million in only eight days from July 29, when the cases hit 900,000.

In May, during an earlier surge in infections, the overall number of COVID-19 cases jumped from 600,000 to 700,000 in 18 days.

But the latest rise has been fueled largely by the highly contagious Delta variant. Japan has recently recorded more than 10,000 newly confirmed infections a day.

The number of new infections confirmed around Japan on Aug. 6 topped the earlier record of 15,263 set the previous day. It was the third straight day for the record to be renewed.

The figure was 4,515 in Tokyo, the second-highest daily total recorded in the capital.

Kanagawa Prefecture reported a new high of 2,082 new COVID-19 cases, while the daily record also fell in Osaka Prefecture, which confirmed 1,310 new cases.

Daily records for new infections were also set in Chiba, Niigata, Toyama, Shizuoka, Mie, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures.

According to a tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the United States, the world’s total number of COVID-19 cases has exceeded 200 million.

Related News