TOKYO: Japan confirmed 253,265 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the third-highest level on record after some 260,000 on Friday and around 255,000 on Thursday.

The latest daily tally was up by some 69,000 from a week earlier.

New deaths among novel coronavirus patients came to 254, including 28 in Osaka Prefecture and 23 in Tokyo.

The number of severely ill patients across the country fell by 11 from Friday to 616.

Tokyo reported 25,277 new cases of COVID-19 infection on Saturday, up by 1,504 from a week before.

The seven-day average of new infection cases in the Japanese capital stood at 25,601.1, down 2.1 pct from a week before, according to the metropolitan government.

The number of severely ill patients in Tokyo, counted under the metropolitan government’s criteria, rose by two from Friday to 36.

In other prefectures, new positive cases came to 23,098 in Osaka, 17,944 in Aichi, 14,995 in Fukuoka and 11,583 in Hyogo.

New infection cases hit record highs in the prefectures of Miyagi, Yamagata, Tottori, Okayama and Tokushima.

JIJI Press