TOKYO: Daily novel coronavirus cases confirmed in Japan exceeded 5,000 on Friday for the first time since Sept. 17 last year.

Friday’s nationwide total stood at 5,076.

The southernmost prefecture of Okinawa reported a record 1,414 new cases, with its daily figure topping 1,000 for the first time. The prefecture marked a record high number for the second consecutive day. On Thursday, the tally came to 981.

As of noon Friday, the occupancy rate for hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in Okinawa stood at 28.9 pct under the central government’s standards, with the figure for beds for severely ill patients at 23.3 pct.

While 187 hospital beds are currently occupied, the prefectural government expects that 37,725 beds will be needed in three weeks, suggesting that a squeeze on the local medical system is imminent.

In Tokyo, new infection cases stood at 922 on Friday, up sharply from 78 a week before.

The seven-day average of new cases in the Japanese capital came to 338.6 as of Friday, up more than sixfold from a week before. The number of severely ill patients under Tokyo’s own criteria stayed flat from Thursday at three, while no new deaths were reported.

On Friday, the central government decided to place three of the country’s 47 prefectures–Okinawa, and Yamaguchi and Hiroshima in western Japan–in a COVID-19 pre-emergency stage, which will run from Sunday to Jan. 31.

Yamaguchi reported 180 new cases Friday. Separately, 91 cases were confirmed at the US military’s Iwakuni base in the prefecture.

Osaka Prefecture, also western Japan, reported 676 new cases.

Nationwide, 91 COVID-19 patients were seriously ill as of Friday, up by 27 from the previous day, while one new death was reported.

The cumulative number of infections with the highly contagious omicron variant of the novel coronavirus in Japan reached 1,601 as of 9 p.m. Thursday. Of the total, 658 people have not traveled abroad very recently. They caught the variant through unidentified routes.

The northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and the western prefecture of Wakayama found suspected community-acquired omicron cases for the first time on Friday.

JIJI Press