TOKYO: The Japanese government on Tuesday decided COVID-19 pre-emergency designation for 18 more prefectures where new infection cases are surging.

The 18 are Hokkaido, Aomori, Yamagata, Fukushima, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Nagano, Shizuoka, Ishikawa, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Okayama, Shimane, Fukuoka, Oita, Saga and Kagoshima.

They will be in the novel coronavirus pre-emergency stage between Thursday and Feb. 20, the government said. The number of prefectures with pre-emergency status will thus rise to 34, or more than two-thirds of the country’s 47 prefectures.

Of the 16 prefectures already with pre-emergency status, the government decided to extend the designation for Okinawa, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi, which began Jan. 9, until Feb. 20, beyond the initially set Jan. 31 expiration.

The other 13 prefectures, including Tokyo, are slated to remain on the list until Feb. 13. Their designation took effect last Friday.

“If new infection cases continue increasing, that could put an even greater burden on the nation’s medical care system in the near future,” economic revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa, who is in charge of the government’s coronavirus measures, said at a meeting of the steering committees of both chambers of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Tuesday.

JIJI Press