TOKYO: The Japanese government plans to give novel coronavirus pre-emergency status to five more prefectures where new infection cases are increasing, informed sources said Thursday.

The pre-emergency for the five prefectures — Gunma, eastern Japan, Ishikawa, central Japan, Okayama and Hiroshima in western Japan, which neighbor each other, and Kumamoto, southwestern Japan–will take effect on Sunday and run until June 13, the sources said. In pre-emergency areas, countermeasures similar to those under a state of emergency can be taken.

The national government will make a decision at a meeting of its coronavirus response headquarters on Friday after hearing from experts earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, the government will forgo declaring a state of emergency for now for the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, which is seeing a spike in infection numbers, the sources said.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met with economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of the government’s coronavirus response, and others on Thursday for discussions on the issues.

“The government has received requests for pre-emergency designation from several prefectures,” Suga told reporters after the meeting, adding, “We’ll make a decision after collecting opinions from experts (on Friday).”

On Hokkaido, he said: “The prefecture was given pre-emergency status only days ago. It’s important that we decide what to do next after determining whether countermeasures now being taken are effective or not.”

New infection numbers are increasing markedly in Gunma, Ishikawa, Okayama, Hiroshima and Kumamoto, raising concerns over shortages of hospital beds for coronavirus patients.

Under a pre-emergency stage, authorities are allowed to request or order eating and drinking establishments to shorten operating hours, and can fine noncompliant businesses.

The Okayama prefectural government on Wednesday asked the national government for pre-emergency designation. A central government official said that the state of infections in Okayama is “very severe” and stressed the need to grant pre-emergency designation to the prefecture.

“We want to thoroughly share our ideas and cooperate with local authorities concerned,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference Thursday.

Currently, a total of eight prefectures are in a pre-emergency stage that is slated to be effective until May 31.

The northeastern prefecture of Fukushima, the western prefecture of Kagawa and the southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki have also sought pre-emergency status. But the central government will not accept the requests this time.

Hokkaido, which was designated for coronavirus pre-emergency on Sunday, marked a record daily high of 712 new infection cases on Thursday.

But the national government is cautious at the moment about putting Hokkaido under a state of emergency, as the strengthening of current measures are seen as being enough to curb infections, according to people familiar with the matter.

Currently, Tokyo, the central prefecture of Aichi, the western prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo, and the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka are under a national government-declared coronavirus state of emergency, the third of the kind in Japan. It is slated to last until the end of May.

JIJI Press