Hokkaido announced its first COVID-19 death on Wednesday, as the prefectural education board urged local authorities to temporarily close all public elementary and junior high schools in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The prefectural government said an elderly person from Hakodate had died Tuesday and was later confirmed to have been infected with the new virus. The government did not disclose the sex of the person.

Separately, a man in his 80s also died in Tokyo on Wednesday from coronavirus, the health ministry said, bringing the number of fatalities in the country to seven, including that of four people who were on the cruise ship Diamond Princess.