Photo/Illutration Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases who heads an expert panel advising the health ministry on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, speaks at a news conference on July 13. (Kai Ichino)

The central government is delaying the start of its promotion and subsidy program for the tourism industry due to the latest wave of COVID-19 cases, tourism minister Tetsuo Saito announced on July 14.

“After meeting with the prime minster, we concluded that now is not the time to start the nationwide subsidy program,” he said.

Saito did not say when he expects the travel assistance program will launch.

He said the government will need to assess the spread of infections and hospital bed occupancy rates before deciding on how long it will delay the start of the program.

The minister’s announcement followed the assessment on July 13 by an expert panel advising the health ministry on its response to the novel coronavirus crisis that new cases are sharply rising across the nation, driven by the highly transmissible mutation of the Omicron variant known as BA.5.

The experts urged the population to renew their efforts to combat the virus by following basic anti-COVID-19 measures, such as ensuring frequent ventilation, as people who use air conditioning tend to forget about ventilation in the summer.

New cases are predicted to jump in the coming weeks.

The number of new cases nationwide over the week until July 12 was 2.14 times that for the preceding week.

All of Japan’s 47 prefectures reported an increase in case numbers.

Thirty-two of the prefectures posted more than a twofold increase in new infections week on week, with Akita Prefecture seeing 3.57 times the previous week’s number and Nara Prefecture 3.01 times.

The panel said BA.5 is responsible for the latest surge as it replaces another Omicron subvariant, BA.2, as the dominant source of infections.

BA.5 is 1.27 times more transmissible than the BA.2 and will very likely replace all BA.2 infections by the first week of August.

There were 90 patients in serious condition nationwide as of July 12, according to the panel.

There are fewer cases of patients considered to be in serious condition at this stage, compared to the more than 1,500 at the peak of the sixth wave of infections early this year.

Although Okinawa Prefecture reported that 57 percent of its beds for COVID-19 patients were occupied, the occupancy rate remains at a low level overall.

Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases who heads the expert panel, said no one called for reimposing travel restrictions at the panel’s July 13 meeting.

But he said authorities should closely monitor the strain on health care systems.

Local health authorities have yet to sort out problems such as the shortages of hospitals seeing patients and staff at public health care centers.

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