With more than 130 new cases of swine flu detected in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures, an expert on infectious diseases warns the new virus could reach Tokyo within days.
"It could be today or tomorrow, as soon as someone who has caught the virus comes to Tokyo on the bullet train," Hitoshi Kamiya, chairman of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's committee on vaccinations, said Monday.
The severity of the outbreak in the Tokyo area depends on how quickly the new cases are detected, he added.