Photo/Illutration The streets in front of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station are bustling with pedestrians on Aug. 6. (Hiroaki Takeda)

Tokyo confirmed 5,773 new COVID-19 cases and 227 patients in serious condition on Aug. 13, both the highest on record, according to metropolitan government officials.

More than 20,000 new infections were reported across Japan as of 6 p.m., setting a new record for the third day in a row.

The daily tally for Kyoto also exceeded its previous high for three consecutive days to reach 450, while the figures for Shizuoka and Kagoshima each set a record for the third straight day at 379 and 159, respectively.

The capital’s latest daily case count was up 731 from the previous high of 5,042, logged on Aug. 5. Its number of serious cases requiring ventilators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, also known as an ECMO lung bypass machine, rose by nine from Aug. 12.

Seven new deaths from the novel coronavirus were also reported in Tokyo on Aug. 13.

The 5,773 new infections brought the daily average of new COVID-19 cases in the capital over the week through Aug. 13 to 4,155.7, an increase of 8.8 percent from the previous week.

The average number of diagnostic tests conducted in Tokyo over the three days through Aug. 12 stood at 16,746. The positivity rate rose to 22.8 percent.

Of the 5,773 cases, 1,810 patients were in their 20s, followed by 1,189 in their 30s, 955 in their 40s and 689 in their 50s. Patients aged 10 to 19 accounted for 526 cases, while 203 were 65 or older.

The daily infection number set records in at least eight other prefectures, including Saitama and Kanagawa, which reported 1,696 and 2,281 new cases, respectively. 

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