THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 4, 2022 at 13:30 JST
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk on a street in Tokyo on Feb. 2. (AP Photo)
Japan posted more than 90,000 COVID-19 cases for a second consecutive day on Feb. 3 with the accumulated nationwide total soaring past 3 million.
As of 8:30 p.m., 96,845 cases were confirmed nationwide.
About 40 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Japan during the pandemic have been confirmed since Jan. 1 with the latest wave fueled by the Omicron variant.
Tokyo reported more than 20,000 fresh COVID-19 cases on Feb. 3, but the figure was slightly lower than the record set the previous day.
Metropolitan government officials said there were 20,679 cases, 897 fewer than the previous day.
Meanwhile, Osaka prefectural officials said there were 19,615 cases on Feb. 3. However, 7,625 of those cases were actually past infections that Osaka municipal officials failed to properly input into their computer system.
Subtracting that figure left a total of 11,990, which was still higher than the previous daily record of 11,881 set on Feb. 1.
In Tokyo, the daily average of new cases for the week ending Feb. 3 was 17,058.6, about 1.5 times the average of the previous week.
There were four deaths linked to COVID-19 in Tokyo.
The metropolitan government said there were 395 cases confirmed as COVID-19 by doctors who made the assessment without the individual being tested.
Officials also said that 53.1 percent of hospital beds set aside for COVID-19 patients were in use in the capital on Feb. 3.
There were 38 patients with symptoms serious enough to require a ventilator or other equipment to breathe. The figure was an increase of eight from the previous day.
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CORRECTION
This article was corrected on Feb. 4. We reported around 7 p.m. on Feb. 3 that Japan posted more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases for the first time. However, the figure included past infections that Osaka municipal officials failed to properly input into their computer system. Subtracting them left 96,845 cases nationwide as of 8:30 p.m.
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