A virus state of emergency in Tokyo and other parts of Japan was yesterday extended, less than three months before the Olympics, as India logged yet another record number of infections.
While many Western nations have begun a gradual opening-up — Germany yesterday declared that a recent surge of infections had been “broken” — much of the world continues to battle a virus that has claimed more than 3.2 million lives.
Japan’s COVID-19 outbreak remains much smaller than in many countries, with about 10,500 deaths, but its vaccine rollout is moving slowly and more infectious variants are driving fresh waves of contagion, with record case numbers in some regions and medics warning that hospitals are under strain.
Photo: AFP
The pandemic has disrupted test events for the upcoming Olympics, with several postponed, canceled or moved abroad, although the Diving World Cup and a rowing qualifier went ahead this week in Tokyo with athletes from abroad.
The emergency measures, less strict than blanket lockdowns in other countries, had been due to end on Tuesday next week, but would continue until the end of the month, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said.
“The number of new virus cases is at a high level in major cities, while hospitals continue to be overwhelmed in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures,” he said.
Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura has warned that the western region’s medical system is “reaching breaking point,” with reports of COVID-19 patients dying while waiting for an ambulance.
The surge has forced Olympic torch relays off Japan’s roads, with the world’s oldest person, a Japanese woman aged 118, giving up her spot in the event.
Kane Tanaka of Fukuoka had planned to use a wheelchair to carry the torch when it passes through the city — but her family said she would no longer participate because “the spread of the coronavirus has not been contained.”
In India, record daily cases have seen the country register up to half of all global infections in the past week.
On Thursday, the country posted 414,000 new cases in the prior 24 hours, another global record, as well as almost 4,000 deaths, according to official data that many experts suspect is a gross underestimate.
New Delhi is one of the worst-hit, along with West Bengal in the east, which recently completed an eight-phase election that saw mass rallies by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other politicians — events partly blamed for the staggering rise in infections.
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