Tokyo has not seen an increase in overall deaths during the coronavirus outbreak, boosting officials’ assertions that they have largely kept infections under control despite criticism over the limited scope of its testing.
The capital saw 33,106 deaths in the three months through March, 0.4 percent fewer than the average of the previous four years for the same period, according to data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Data for April, when new daily virus cases peaked in the city, is not yet available.
The data does not provide details on the causes of death, but underlines that there hasn’t been a surge in deaths during the pandemic despite Japan having some of the earliest confirmed cases in the world outside the original epicenter in China. There were 1,200 fewer deaths in February this year than in the same month in 2019, while they rose by 428 in March.