TOKYO: Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday that the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the country has doubled in the week since the government declared a state of emergency over the epidemic on April 7.

"Patient numbers have doubled in Tokyo, in the seven prefectures (subject to the emergency declaration) and nationwide," Kato said in a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

The minister pointed out that some 70 percent of infection cases in the week through Monday occurred in the seven prefectures covered by the emergency declaration--Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka.

"We need to look at the situation in the medium-to-long term," Kato said, referring to the days in which the number of new infection cases seemed to have stopped growing. "It is not appropriate to look at the numbers on a day-by-day basis."

JIJI Press