TOKYO: The daily number of new fatalities among novel coronavirus patients in Japan came to a record 343 on Tuesday, exceeding the previous record of 327 deaths, marked on Feb. 22.

New COVID-19 fatalities were confirmed in 44 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, with Osaka reporting 42 deaths and Tokyo and Kanagawa each confirming 25.

Meanwhile, the daily count of new infection cases rose by over 42,000 from a week earlier to 208,551, and the number of severely ill coronavirus patients grew by six from Monday to 646.

Daily new cases hit record highs in Akita, Gifu and Kochi prefectures.

In Tokyo alone, 21,770 new infection cases were confirmed on Tuesday, down by 1,741 from a week before. The seven-day moving average of new cases fell 4.2 pct to 24,493.9.

The number of coronavirus patients with severe symptoms under the Japanese capital’s criteria stood at 39, up by three from the previous day.

JIJI Press