TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2021) Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced on Friday the extension of the state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area until March 21.
Earlier in the day, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that the government had decided to prolong the coronavirus-related state of emergency in the capital area.
"[The measure] necessary to protect lives and livelihoods," Suga said during a meeting of the government's COVID-19 task force, as cited by the Kyodo news agency.
The prime minister called this two-week extension a "crucial period" to prevent a resurgence in the number of infections.
The state of emergency in the sprawling capital region, the last region still under the order since early January, was set to expire this Sunday. However, despite a downward trend in the number of new COVID-19 cases, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on Tuesday expressed concerns about the lifting, arguing that the pace at which the number of new infections is falling may not be fast enough to lift the emergency for the area.
On Thursday, Suga proposed extending the emergency for 14 days but said that the final decision would be made after the consultations with virologists and governors of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures, composing the greater metropolitan area.
