Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike attends a meeting of the metropolitan government's COVID-19 monitoring panel on Sept. 30. (Kayoko Sekiguchi)

For the first time in about 10 months, the Tokyo metropolitan government has lowered its COVID-19 alert level from the highest level 4.

A monitoring panel for the metropolitan government met on Sept. 30 and agreed the alert concerning the spread of infections should be downgraded to level 3. However, the alert level regarding the state of the capital’s medical care structure will remain at the highest level 4.

According to documents presented to the panel, the daily average of new cases over the course of a week in Tokyo was 296, a sharp decrease from the 572.4 of the previous week. Moreover, it was a huge decrease from the 4,388.4 average reported on Aug. 25.

When the alert level was raised to level 4 on Nov. 19, 2020, the average was 325.7.

However, Norio Omagari, director of the Disease Control and Prevention Center under the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, said infection prevention measures and vaccinations for Tokyo residents should continue to be expanded to prevent a rebound of infections during the colder winter months.

The concern about the medical care structure was due to the still high number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with serious symptoms.

Meanwhile, metropolitan officials confirmed 218 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sept. 30, the 39th straight day the daily tally has been under that of the same day of the previous week.

Twelve deaths from the illness were reported as well as 100 patients with symptoms serious enough to require a ventilator or other equipment to breathe. The figure was a decrease of seven from the previous day.

(Rihito Karube contributed to this article.)

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