The governor of Osaka prefecture in western Japan warned that he may need to ask the central government to declare a state of emergency if current measures to quell the coronavirus outbreak are deemed insufficient.
The effect of stricter measures imposed earlier this month could start emerging in the week of April 19, and authorities will decide then if an emergency declaration was needed, Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said in a television program late Saturday. If declared, measures stronger than those taken during a state of emergency earlier this year would be required, he said.
Osaka, Japan’s third-largest prefecture by population with 8.81 million people, is seeing a steep rise in the number of infections, exceeding that of the capital Tokyo. It registered a daily record of 918 new virus cases on Saturday, compared with 570 in Tokyo.
The central government on April 5 designated Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi prefectures as areas needing stricter measures to contain outbreaks. The government said on Friday that the quasi-state of emergency would be applied to Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa prefectures from today. Go Onomitsu, Bloomberg
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