TOKYO: Prefectural governors adopted Thursday a Japan revival declaration stressing the need to balance measures against coronavirus infections and the resumption of social and economic activities.

"We need to create a new era in order to revive the country from local communities by overcoming the coronavirus" after reconstructing medical systems, said the declaration, approved at a videoconference of the National Governors' Association.

Japan cannot return society to the way it was before the coronavirus outbreak, the declaration said, underlining the need to establish new lifestyles, such as expanded use of teleworking, in a bid to prevent further spread of COVID-19.

Japan needs to rebuild its testing and medical treatment systems for coronavirus patients as soon as possible to enable early detection and contact tracing of virus carriers and provide hospital treatment to them, in order to prepare for a second wave of infections, according to the declaration.

In the paper, the leaders of the country's 47 prefectures also said they will start work to improve related legal systems and their operations.

The declaration called for boosting efforts to decentralize the country to a new level, so that regions across the country can achieve sustainable growth while dealing with threats from infectious diseases.

"A major point is how to contain (expected) second and third waves of infections," Kamon Iizumi, president of the association and governor of Tokushima Prefecture, western Japan, said in the videoconference. He also called for preparing for the next phase by consolidating accumulated knowledge.

The videoconference was joined by Shigeru Omi, chair of the central government's coronavirus response advisory committee.

Omi asked the governors to make additional efforts to ensure that coronavirus-related data are shared promptly and that both polymerase chain reaction tests and antigen examinations are conducted.

The governors' association usually holds an annual plenary session in July. This year's session was moved up because the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics had been originally slated for this summer.

The association decided to hold this year's session as a teleconference due to the spread of the coronavirus.

JIJI Press