OSAKA/TOKYO: The Osaka prefectural government said Tuesday that it has confirmed more than 1,000 new cases of novel coronavirus infection the same day, a first for the western Japan prefecture.

The daily tally in Osaka stood at 1,099, beating the previous record of 918 marked on Saturday.

Meanwhile, neighboring Hyogo Prefecture reported a record 391 infection cases on Tuesday, while Tokyo logged 510 new infections, the first reading above 500 in three days.

The occupancy rate for Osaka’s 224 hospital beds for severely ill coronavirus patients had reached 90 percent as of Monday, and 15 patients with severe symptoms have been hospitalized at medical institutions accepting those with lighter symptoms.

The prefecture is calling on hospitals accepting coronavirus patients to partially restrict their admission of general patients.

“Our management of hospital beds is becoming extremely severe,” Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said.

“Almost 90 percent of infections are being caused by the British variant virus instead of the original strain, and even younger people with no underlying conditions are becoming severely ill,” the governor added, urging citizens to refrain from unnecessary travel.

The board of education in Toyonaka, Osaka, said Tuesday that 16 out of 60 teachers at the city-run Shinden elementary school were found to be infected with the virus, of whom two are hospitalized.

There are no reports of students feeling unwell, and the school has been suspended from Monday through April 25.

Of Tuesday’s new cases in Tokyo, 156 were confirmed among people in their 20s, 100 among those in their 40s, 87 among those in their 30s and 47 among those aged 65 or over.

The seven-day average of new cases in the Japanese capital came to 492.0, up 24.0 percent from a week earlier.

The number of severely ill patients under the metropolitan government’s standards stood at 41.

In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said  at a news conference the same day that the central government will cooperate with the Osaka prefectural government to prevent infections.

“We want to work together to contain infections, keeping in mind the importance of thorough infection prevention, securing medical systems and alert against variant strains,” he said.

Kato declined to comment on Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura’s announcement that he is considering asking the central government to apply novel coronavirus pre-emergency measures to the central Japan prefecture.

JIJI Press