Some 2,000 people infected with the novel coronavirus were staying home for recovery in Japan last week, health ministry data showed Wednesday.

As of April 28, the country's confirmed infection cases totaled 8,711, excluding those who had left hospital or died.

Of the total, about 20 pct, or 1,984 cases, were staying home, while 862 were staying at hotels designated to accommodate infected people.

The number of those staying at designated hotels remained low even though the ministry hopes to increase the use of such facilities after the deaths of infected people staying home.

Of the remaining infection cases, 5,558 were hospitalized, while 147 people were staying at social welfare or other facilities.

By prefecture, Tokyo had the largest number of infected citizens staying home at 635, followed by Saitama at 354 and Osaka at 332.

Many local governments encourage mildly ill infected people to stay home for recovery because their local infection cases are small in number, a ministry official said.

"We hope such people will be transferred more to designated hotels so that they would be taken care of speedily if their conditions suddenly deteriorate," the official also said.

JIJI Press