Photo/Illutration Tape and fences are set up in Tokyo’s Ueno Park on March 31 to discourage people from holding drinking parties under the cherry blossoms. (Reina Kitamura)

Governors are so concerned about the spread of the more contagious BA.2 Omicron subvariant of the novel coronavirus that they have raised the possibility of reintroducing COVID-19 pre-emergency measures.

The central government decided on March 21 to lift the pre-emergency measures in various prefectures after the sixth wave of infections, fueled by the Omicron strain, subsided.

However, the Omicron subvariant is threatening to bring about another wave.

“Replacement by the BA.2 has been very fast,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters on March 30.

Koike visited Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that day and urged the central government to provide applicable criteria for future infection situations that would require a state of emergency or pre-emergency measures.

The metropolitan government confirmed 8,226 new COVID-19 cases on March 31.

The daily average of new cases over the week through March 31 in the capital was 7,529.9, about 1.2 times more than the average for the preceding week.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, night-time foot traffic in the capital’s busy districts increased by 4.5 percent in the week when the pre-emergency measures were lifted.

But the figure has jumped far more sharply this week.

The occupancy rate of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in Tokyo was 24.3 percent, less than half of the figure during the peak infection period in mid-February.

The ratio of Tokyo residents who have received booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine reached the metropolitan government’s target of 40 percent on March 25.

Still, the BA.2 Omicron subvariant has slowed improvements in the infection situation.

BA.2 is believed to have caused 52.3 percent of new infection cases in Tokyo in the week until March 21, based on the number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests the metropolitan government independently conducted for mutant strains.

It was a big jump from 7.4 percent recorded a month before.

“We face a greater risk of infections spreading further again,” a health expert said in a metropolitan government statement released on March 31.

The Osaka prefectural government has also expressed a sense of crisis over the subvariant.

The number of new infections in the week until March 29 was 25,678, 1.08 times the figure for the previous week. That ended the declining trend in new cases in the prefecture.

The occupancy rate of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in Osaka Prefecture has been on a downward trend, but the local government remains cautious.

The rate was down to 28.6 percent on March 30, a level in which the prefectural government can drop the currently-issued “red alert” that signals the infection situation is in a state of emergency.

But Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura was not ready to do so. 

“It is still too early to change the alert to yellow,” he said.

In Aichi Prefecture, the number of new COVID-19 cases rose week on week on seven consecutive days to March 30.

The spread of the BA.2 Omicron subvariant has been confirmed in the prefecture.

Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura has repeatedly questioned the central government’s March 21 decision to lift the pre-emergency measures in 18 prefectures, including Aichi.

“I think it was too early,” he said.

In Okinawa Prefecture, the pre-emergency measures were lifted in late February, ahead of the rest of the country.

But the week-on-week number of new COVID-19 cases in the southern island prefecture started trending upward again in mid-March.

Okinawa prefectural officials believe the latest surge is partly due to people dining out and traveling more.

The number of patients in their 20s has notably increased, a sign that the novel coronavirus is spreading, officials said.

The occupancy rate of hospital beds in Okinawa Prefecture has remained lower than 30 percent, and health care services have not been overwhelmed.

But a prefectural official said, “The surge is not as rapid as the one in January, but if the number of patients increases, it will affect the number of hospitalized patients. The situation is far from rosy.”

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