The Japanese government placed Okinawa Prefecture under a novel coronavirus state of emergency Sunday to control a surge of new COVID-19 cases in the southernmost prefecture.

The state of emergency, which was the third of its kind in Japan, now covers 10 prefectures.

In Okinawa, the state of emergency is set to run through June 20.

Since April 12, Okinawa had been in the pre-emergency stage, which allows local authorities to take priority antivirus steps similar to those under the emergency. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki requested that the state of emergency cover his prefecture as well following a recent spike in the number of new infection cases there.

The prefectural government will ask eating and other establishments offering alcoholic beverages and karaoke services to suspend operations temporarily, a measure that can be taken under a state of emergency.

The central government will decide whether to extend the state of emergency for the other nine prefectures: Hokkaido, Tokyo, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Okayama, Hiroshima and Fukuoka that are currently due to expire on May 31.

As the number of new infection cases remains high in these areas, the emergency is widely expected to be extended, possibly until June 20.

On Saturday, the Japanese government ended the coronavirus pre-emergency stage for the western prefecture of Ehime, earlier than the initially planned expiration date of May 31, based on a judgment that the prefecture’s situation of the viral spread had improved.

The number of prefectures on the pre-emergency list now stands at eight.

JIJI Press