TOKYO, Jan 21 (BUS): Restaurants will close early in Tokyo and dozens of other areas across Japan from Friday as the country expands COVID-19 restrictions due to an omicron variant that has caused cases to spike to new highs in urban areas, report AP.
The restraint, which is a kind of pre-state of emergency, is the first since September and is set to run through February 13 with three other prefectures – Okinawa, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi – under similar measures since early January, and the restraint now covers 16 districts, or a third country.
While many Japanese adults are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, few have received a booster dose, which was vital protection from the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The Health Ministry on Friday approved Pfizer’s vaccinations for children aged 5-11, who are at a higher risk of infection.
Throughout the pandemic, Japan has resisted using lockdowns to limit the spread of the virus and has focused on asking restaurants to close early and not serving alcohol, urging the public to wear masks and practice social distancing, as the government seeks to minimize damage to the economy.
Some experts question the effectiveness of restricting restaurants only, noting that infections in the three provinces that have already been under the measures for about two weeks show no signs of slowing down.
After more than two years of repeated restrictions and requests for social distancing, the Japanese are increasingly less cooperative with such measures. People are back commuting on crowded trains and shopping in crowded stores.
Tokyo’s main train station Shinagawa was filled as usual with passengers who rushed to work Friday morning.
Japan briefly relaxed border controls in November but quickly backtracked on them to ban most foreign arrivals when the Omicron variant began spreading to other countries. Japan says it will stick to the strict border policy until the end of February as the country tries to boost medical and treatment systems.
Tokyo recorded 8,638 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, surpassing the previous record of 7,377 cases the day before.
Norio Omagari, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the National Center for Global Health and an advisor to the Tokyo metropolitan government committee, said daily new cases in Tokyo could exceed 18,000 within a week if the increase continues at the current pace.
While about 80% of Japanese have received the first two doses of the vaccine, initiation of booster injections has been slow and has reached only 1.4% of the population so far.
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