TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday instructed other ministers to consider easing regulations to expand the use of online diagnosis and treatment as the novel coronavirus is raging.

"It's important to use online medical diagnosis and treatment to protect doctors and nurses from the risk of infections at hospitals," Abe told a meeting of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy.

He also called for deregulation to promote remote education.

"We'll take bold steps by utilizing all fiscal, monetary and tax measures that will be available," Abe told the meeting, where emergency economic measures were discussed.

A council member from the private sector said the output gap, or the difference between an economy's aggregate demand and supply capacity, may have expanded to 20 trillion yen in January-March.

The government should shore up the economy because the pandemic is likely to prolong and the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have been postponed, the member said.

After the meeting, economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said that as far as his understanding goes, Abe's instructions did not cover a consumption tax cut proposed by some Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers.

Separately, LDP policy chief Fumio Kishida handed Abe a proposal that the government launch economic measures worth 60 trillion yen, including 20 trillion yen in fiscal spending, even bigger than those released after the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.

"We'll surely protect employment," Abe said, also expressing his eagerness to revive the Japanese economy.

JIJI Press