TOKYO: The average number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Japan in the week through Sunday per medical institution came to 7.24, up 1.18-fold from the previous week’s 6.13, the health ministry said Friday.

According to the ministry, 35,747 new cases were reported by some 5,000 regularly monitored hospitals across the country, with 46 of the country’s 47 prefectures, excluding Toyama, seeing such cases increase.

By prefecture, Okinawa had the highest average, at 48.39, exceeding 31.85 marked amid the eighth wave of infections early this year. The average came to 13.48 in Kagoshima, 9.66 in Miyazaki and 9.58 in Kumamoto.

The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the week nationwide rose 569 to 5,320.

New cases are on the rise in western Japan, Takaji Wakita, chair of the ministry’s COVID-19 advisory board and head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, told a press conference.

But at the same time, he noted it would be difficult to predict whether infections will spread throughout the country based only on the fixed-point data.

“We will continue to monitor the situation,” he said.

JIJI Press