TOKYO: Five new cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Tokyo on Tuesday, with the daily number in the Japanese capital standing below 20 for the fifth straight day.

The daily count in Tokyo was the same as on Sunday, when it marked the lowest level since late March.

The government will determine on Thursday whether to lift the state of emergency over the coronavirus for eight prefectures including Tokyo. Among the criteria for lifting the measure includes whether the number of new infection cases in the past week is 0.5 or below per 100,000 people.

As of Tuesday, the number of new infections in the week from Thursday stands at 73, which brings the rate of infections above 0.5.

However, the rate comes down to around 0.3 when the number of infections in the week from Friday is considered, as only 43 new cases have been reported since then. Tokyo's population is around 14 million.

Among other prefectures still under the state of emergency, Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan marked no new infections for the third straight day, bringing the rate per 100,000 people to around 0.03. By contrast, three new cases were confirmed in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, and eight were confirmed in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, bringing the rates for both prefectures above 0.5.

JIJI Press