14. 05. 2020. 19:48   >>  19:49 0

FIGHT FOR PRESERVING THE ECONOMY

Japan lifts coronavirus state of emergency in most regions

Japan has lifted a state of emergency imposed to tackle the coronavirus in most of the country, but kept it in place for the capital, Tokyo, and Osaka.

"Today we decided to lift the state of emergency in 39 (out of 47) prefectures," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday in a nationally televised news conference after a coronavirus task force meeting of officials and experts.

Abe declared a month-long state of emergency on April 7 in the capital and six other urban prefectures and later expanded it to the whole country until May 31.

With signs of the infections slowing, Abe sought to relax the measure and balance disease prevention with the Japanese economy, the third largest in the world.

The 39 prefectures, where the state of emergency was lifted, represent 54 percent of the country's population.

Japan has more than 16,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with about 680 deaths. The number of new cases has significantly decreased nationwide.

While Japan has avoided the kind of explosive growth seen in the United States and elsewhere, its testing has also been among the lowest, at 188 polymerase chain reactions (PCR) tests for every 100,000 people, compared with 3,159 in Italy and 3,044 in Germany.

Hardest-hit Tokyo has conducted just 50,000 tests so far, of which about 5,000 were positive.