As the central government prepares to extend the national state of emergency for the coronavirus until May 31, Osaka is moving forward with a plan that could reopen more businesses in the area by the middle of the month.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said Saturday that, from May 15, the prefecture would begin judging whether to lift the request for nonessential businesses to close and for people to stay indoors. Criteria for the decision include the prefectural infection rate, the number of those who don’t know how they became infected and the situation with hospital beds at the time.
“For closed businesses, every day is a matter of survival, and one month to remain closed is a heavy burden. For one week (May 7 to 14), we want them to endure. We’ll judge whether we partially lift the restrictions from May 15,” Yoshimura said.