Tokyo, Jan 4,2021:Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced on Monday that his government is considering declaring a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures following a continuing rise in coronavirus cases during the New Year holidays.
Speaking at a New Year press conference, Suga said that his government seeks to start vaccinations against COVID-19 for frontline healthcare workers earlier than its previous timeline of mid-March.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and the leaders of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures on Saturday had urged the government to declare a state of emergency days after the capital reported more than 1,300 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time.
A state of emergency was previously declared in Tokyo and six other prefectures in early April 2020 during Japan’s first wave of infections, and expanded nationwide later that month. The emergency was lifted in phases during the following month as coronavirus cases subsided.
