Photo/Illutration An underground area near a Tokyo train station July 14 (AP Photo)

Japan set a new daily record for COVID-19 cases on July 16 with 110,675 confirmed as of 5:50 p.m.

The previous record, 104,163, was set on Feb. 5 when the nation was being ravaged by a sixth wave of infections.

While the daily tally dropped afterward and fell below 10,000 in June, a recent surge caused experts to say Japan is in the grip of a seventh wave.

On July 16, daily records were set in 14 prefectures: Aomori, Miyagi, Yamanashi, Shizuoka, Aichi, Wakayama, Yamaguchi, Kagawa, Kochi, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Okinawa.

Shigeru Omi, the chairman of the government panel of experts dealing with the pandemic, acknowledged the existence of a seventh wave but said there was no need to implement pre-emergency measures that would restrict people’s movements and activities.

The government task force on July 15 said no such measures would be ordered and that social and economic activities would be allowed to continue as before.

This is mainly because the Omicron variant is now the most prevalent strain and numbers of patients developing serious symptoms or dying have dropped in comparison to past variants.

Still, Japan’s accumulated total of COVID-19 cases exceeded 10 million on July 14.

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