TOKYO: The Tokyo metropolitan government Friday entered the final phase of its three-stage road map for easing its business suspension request issued in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

On Thursday, it lifted its "Tokyo Alert" issued for extra caution among residents and businesses in Japan's capital against the virus. Both moves were decided at a meeting of the metropolitan government's coronavirus response headquarters Thursday.

"We'll enter a new phase in which economic and social activities are fully carried out," Governor Yuriko Koike told the meeting. "We need to live a life while taking measures to prevent infection."

She stressed that the metropolitan government aims to find any signs of possible resurgence through testing-regime expansion and continued monitoring.

After the lifting of the Tokyo Alert, the landmark Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay and the metropolitan government building were lit up in rainbow colors. The illumination of both structures was kept red while the alert system was active.

In the third and final phase, the metropolitan government removed the closure request for facilities such as pachinko pinball parlors, amusement parks, game arcades, bars without hospitality services, karaoke parlors and manga cafes.

The maximum closing time of eating and drinking establishments requested to shorten operating hours was extended to midnight, from 10 p.m. under the second stage. The request itself will be lifted Thursday.

The road map says that the business suspension request will remain in place for hostess bars and other nightlife establishments with hospitality services, as wells as live music facilities, even after a shift to the third stage.

But the metropolitan government decided to allow them to reopen on June 19 in line with a policy of the central government. This will mark the full end to the metropolitan government's COVID-19 business suspension request.

On Thursday, 22 novel coronavirus cases were newly confirmed in Tokyo.

The figure was up by four from Wednesday, but the average daily number of new confirmed cases in the past seven days stood at 17.9, meeting a criterion of fewer than 20 set by the metropolitan government for easing restrictions.

An expert panel concluded at a meeting Thursday night that the medical system, including hospital beds, has enough capacity in Tokyo and that the shift to the third stage is "appropriate."

The Tokyo government entered the first stage of the road map May 26, with the suspension request lifted for such facilities as libraries and the closing time of eating and drinking establishments extended to up to 10 p.m. from 8 p.m.

In the second stage, which started on June 1, the metropolitan government lifted the closure request on commercial facilities, cinemas, fitness gyms and others.

However, it issued the Tokyo Alert the very next day, when Tokyo confirmed 34 new coronavirus cases, judging that the number of new infections was on a rising trend.

JIJI Press