TOKYO: The central government Tuesday revised down the number of novel coronavirus clusters in Japan to 13 after objections from regions determined as hosting a cluster.

The health ministry deleted two clusters in as many prefectures from its COVID-19 cluster map posted on its website. The current 13 clusters, or group infections of at least five people, are in eight prefectures.

The ministry decided not to count as a cluster a case involving a person passing the virus to another after returning home from the location of group infections.

Deleted from the map were clusters in Oita Prefecture, southwestern Japan, and Wakayama Prefecture in the western region.

Also on Tuesday, a coronavirus infection was confirmed for the first time in the prefectures of Ibaraki, eastern Japan, and Kagawa, western Japan.

An infected patient in his 80s has died in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo, the Sagamihara government said the same day.

JIJI Press