Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday warned of signs of a resurgent spread of the novel coronavirus as colder weather drives more people indoors.
"We have to watch the situation with a stronger sense of caution than before," Suga said in a Diet committee session, a day after new daily infections nationwide topped 1,000 for the first time since August.
While most of those cases continued to come from urban centers such as Tokyo and Osaka, there have also been clusters of infections in Hokkaido as well as northeastern parts of the country including Miyagi and Fukushima.