The novel coronavirus continues to spread in the capital and its health care system needs further strengthening, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s expert panel said Wednesday as it announced its decision to raise the city’s risk status to red — the fourth and highest level of its largely symbolic alert system.
It was the first time for Tokyo's status to be classified at level four since the city revised its COVID-19 monitoring system guidelines on June 30.
That change was widely seen as an attempt to draw attention away from new and untraceable cases — as was the case with the original criteria — and focus more on the health care system and whether hospitals are capable of accepting more patients in the event of an explosive outbreak.