TOKYO: The number of novel coronavirus infection cases newly confirmed in Japan came to 2,388 on Thursday, hitting a record high for the second straight day.

The cases were found in 42 of the country’s 47 prefectures and at airport quarantine stations. On Wednesday, the nationwide coronavirus tally stood at 2,201.

In Tokyo on Thursday, 534 people were newly found positive with the virus, the first figure above 500 a day for the Japanese capital, with the daily count logging an all-time high for the second consecutive day.

Of the day’s total, 130 people are in their 20s, 110 in their 30s and 96 in their 40s, while people aged 65 or over accounted for 69. Infection routes have not been identified for 318 of the total cases. The number of severely ill coronavirus patients in Tokyo stood at 38, down by one from Wednesday.

On Thursday, new infection cases also hit a record high in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, at 267, in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, at 106, in the central prefecture of Aichi, at 219, and the western prefectures of Osaka, Hyogo, Yamaguchi and Wakayama, at 338, 132, 18 and 15, respectively.

Twenty-one new coronavirus fatalities were reported in the country the same day, including seven in Hokkaido, three in Osaka, two in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, and one each in prefectures including Shizuoka, central Japan, and Okinawa, southernmost Japan. The cumulative nationwide death toll from the virus now totals 1,968.

JIJI Press