A record 327 day care centers have temporarily shut down in Japan as the coronavirus resurgence grips the country, the health ministry said Monday, causing a headache for working parents.
The number of such facilities suspending services as of last Thursday, excluding privately operated or locally licensed ones, increased fourfold in a week along with the spike in COVID-19 cases and well exceeded the previous high of 185 in September, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Japan's confirmed daily coronavirus cases topped 50,000 on Saturday in the wake of the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant, renewing the record for a fifth straight day.