The government has secured over 210,000 hotel rooms nationwide to accommodate those with mild coronavirus symptoms as well as asymptomatic patients as the country tries to contain the spread of the virus, a Cabinet minister said Sunday.
The government has also received 120,000 face masks from companies and will provide them to hospital staff amid product shortages, economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters after inspecting the University of Tokyo Hospital where patients with severe symptoms have been treated.
Of the hotel rooms secured, the government has already concluded contracts for about 6,000, Nishimura said.
The number of infections confirmed in Japan has topped 11,000, including some 700 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined earlier this year near Tokyo, according to authorities.
In Tokyo on Sunday, 107 new cases were reported, bringing the total in the capital to more than 3,000, the most among the nation's 47 prefectures.