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Abe cabinet divided into 2 groups to prevent virus spread

To avoid a closed and congested environment, a possible hotbed for group infections, seats for cabinet ministers will be arranged with wider distances between them. (AFP)
To avoid a closed and congested environment, a possible hotbed for group infections, seats for cabinet ministers will be arranged with wider distances between them. (AFP)
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01 Apr 2020 04:04:52 GMT9
01 Apr 2020 04:04:52 GMT9

TOKYO: The government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to divide cabinet ministers into two groups to alternately attend meetings of the government's coronavirus response headquarters in order to prevent the spread of infections among ministers.

"To prevent the spread of the virus and serve the purpose of crisis management, we'll divide participants of response headquarters meetings into two patterns," Abe told a meeting with cabinet ministers on Tuesday.

As Abe attends all such meetings, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who will serve as interim prime minister, will not attend such meetings.

To avoid a closed and congested environment, a possible hotbed for group infections, seats for cabinet ministers will be arranged with wider distances between them.

The measures were prompted by the infection of cabinet ministers in Britain.
Ministers of the Abe cabinet are now allowed to wear masks as well. They had refrained from doing so in order to avoid raising concerns among the public.

Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga attended Tuesday's meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy wearing masks.

The government asked media organizations to assign only one reporter each to covering the response headquarters wearing masks.

Wearing masks is partly intended to "set an example for Japanese people," a government source said. But all ministers attended Tuesday's cabinet meeting without wearing masks in principle.

At a meeting of cabinet ministers on Tuesday, Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi proposed using teleconferences for meetings involving ministers.

JIJI Press

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