Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Friday evening that the country’s state of emergency will be expanded to Okinawa, adding one more prefecture to what is a growing list of 10 areas where the order will be in effect.
The state of emergency will be in place from Sunday through June 20 in the country’s southernmost prefecture, where a record 207 new cases were reported Friday. As of Thursday, more than 90% of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in Okinawa were occupied, and officials fear medical facilities will be overwhelmed if new cases continue to increase.
Gifu Prefecture, where pre-emergency measures are active, had requested to be added to the state of emergency list, but the central government rejected the request and chose instead to keep current measures in place.