Tokyo Asking Stores to Cut Hours as Infections Jump, Report Says
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to ask restaurants and other stores to close early as it seeks to combat a surge in coronavirus infections, according to a local media report.
The request will apply from Saturday and will call on establishments to shut at 10 p.m. for three weeks, local broadcaster TBS reported, citing an unidentified person.
The plans come a day after the largest one-day increase in serious coronavirus cases in the city on record. Severe cases, which the area defines as those on a ventilator or ECMO machine, jumped 24% to a total of 51, the highest level Tokyo has seen since the start of the pandemic. The seven-day average of coronavirus cases in Tokyo has more than doubled over two weeks to more than 400.
Just last week, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said the number of severe cases, rather than sheer amount of new infections, were her “red line” that would spur further action.
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