Japan’s Abe prepares to declare state of emergency over virus spread, 7 prefectures to be affected

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday said he has started preparations for declaring a state of emergency over the continued spread of COVID-19 in Japan.

The declaration is likely to be issued on Tuesday and will take effective a day later, government officials said.

COVID-19 cases in the country have reached the 4,000 mark nationwide, with infections in Tokyo, Japan’s epicenter of the virus, continuing to surge, according to the health ministry and local authorities’ latest figures Monday.

Following a meeting with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) executives, the prime minister said that the declaration, likely to be issued on Tuesday, will cover the period through May 6 and be applicable to seven prefectures across Japan.

The prefectures to be covered by the emergency declaration will be those that have seen recent, disproportionate spikes in the COVID-19 cases, as well as those recording consistently increasing cases of infections.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said

the affected prefectures will be: Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka.

To cushion the downside economic effects of any restriction of people’s movements or business activities as a result of the declaration, Abe said Monday the government will compile a stimulus package to the tune of 108 trillion yen (989 billion U.S. dollars), with the details likely to be unveiled on Tuesday.

The amount, the Japanese leader said, is equates to around 20 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product and eclipses the 56.8 trillion yen package rolled out by the Japanese government during the 2008 global financial crisis.

The prime minister also announced Monday that in a bid to tackle the pandemic in Japan, the virus testing capacity of healthcare services will be doubled to 20,000 per day, as concerns have been mounting about not only the spike of cases in urban areas such as Tokyo and Osaka, but also the rising number of the COVID-19 cases of which the infection path cannot be traced or otherwise ascertained.

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In recent weeks, pressure has been mounting on Abe to make the declaration amid a surge in the COVID-19 cases, with calls for the move from Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and Hirofumi Yoshimura, the governor of Osaka Prefecture, becoming more vociferous.

Koike has described the situation of the virus spread in the capital as “astonishing” and has said that Tokyo is “on the brink,” while Yoshimura said that if left unchecked there could be an “explosive spread” of cases of the COVID-19 in Osaka.

The Japan Medical Association along with regional healthcare specialists, especially in Tokyo, have voiced concerns about healthcare facilities becoming overburden with the continued increase in infections, with concerns rife that the number of hospital beds available for the COVID-19 patients may be extremely close to capacity.

A panel of government experts warned recently the country’s healthcare system could collapse if the COVID-19 cases here continue to spike.

The healthcare system in Tokyo and four other prefectures is under increased strain and “drastic countermeasures need to be taken as quickly as possible,” the experts concluded.

Amid the crisis, Japan’s health ministry on Friday said that local governments would now be advised to accommodate the COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms in hotels amid a shortage of hospital beds.

The Tokyo metropolitan government has already begun talks with hotels to house patients with mild symptoms, with the bill to be footed by the government’s extra budget.

One of the most pertinent catalysts for the emergency declaration being issued was a panel of government experts warning recently that the country’s entire healthcare system could collapse if the COVID-19 cases here continue to spike.

Moving patients with less severe symptoms to hotels or back to their homes would free up vital bed space in hospitals for patients with more severe and potentially fatal symptoms, the health ministry has said.

In a further move to ease the strain on hospitals, the health ministry has also relaxed its conditions for the discharge of patients diagnosed with the COVID-19.

Infected patients will be allowed to be discharged from hospital after two days provided they test negative twice for the pneumonia-causing virus.

Prior to declaring a state of emergency over the pandemic, Abe will seek the opinions from an advisory panel of medical experts and the level of emergency will have to meet specific criteria.

Once a state of emergency is declared by Abe, the government will have extended powers to instruct people to stay at home on a regional or national basis, issue closures to schools, and restrict the use of locations that facilitate large groups of people gathering together or cancel large scale events all together.

The government would also have the authority to demand that supplies deemed essential to combating the spread of the virus be sold to them or requisitioned, and be able to temporarily commandeer private land or facilities for the purposes of providing medical care.

According to the health ministry and local authorities on Monday, the total number of the COVID-19 infections in Japan stands at 4,000, with the death toll from the pneumonia-causing virus totaling 106 people, including those from the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama, close to Tokyo.

Of the 4,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections in Japan, the majority are still in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, the ministry’s figures showed, which has confirmed 1,116 cases.
Osaka Prefecture has recorded 408 COVID-19 cases, Chiba Prefecture 278, Kanagawa Prefecture 267, Aichi Prefecture 228 and 203 cases have been recorded in Hyogo Prefecture.

Source: Xinhua