TOKYO: Japan confirmed 8,895 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the first daily tally below 10,000 in four days.

The country reported 2,125 severely ill COVID-19 patients, down by 48 from Thursday, and 69 new deaths.

Tokyo confirmed 1,242 new cases, down from 2,539 a week before and marking the 19th consecutive day of week-on-week decline.

In the Japanese capital, people in their 20s made up the largest group of new cases by age, at 330, followed by those in their 30s, at 222, and those in their 40s, at 210. New cases came to 204 among people aged 19 or younger and 98 among those aged 65 or over.

The number of severely ill COVID-19 patients measured under the Tokyo metropolitan government’s standards fell by eight from Thursday to 243. There were 15 new deaths.

There were 103,328 COVID-19 patients staying at home across the country as of midnight on Tuesday, down by about 32,000 from a week earlier.

By prefecture, Aichi had the most such patients, at 19,159, followed by Osaka, at 15,523, and Tokyo, at 12,481.

JIJI Press