The Tokyo Metropolitan Government confirmed 67 new cases of infection with the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest daily figure since 87 were reported on May 4.
Wednesday is the sixth straight day in which the figure has topped 50, with the new cases bringing the cumulative number of infections in Tokyo to 6,292. The almost two-month high also comes a day after Gov. Yuriko Koike announced a revision to the city’s guidelines on monitoring the ongoing spread of the virus.
The new guidelines have abandoned numerical thresholds and put more emphasis on the capacity of the capital’s health care system as a basis for deciding whether to implement business closure requests and other virus countermeasures.
Recently, there has been growing public concern about a resurgence of COVID-19 spreading rapidly in the capital and surrounding prefectures.
Among recent cases, many of the infected are young people and those who have visited the nightlife areas in the capital. None have developed serious conditions and many have been asymptomatic. But the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions could face greater risks of infection unless the recent trend changes.