Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was expected to come under further pressure this week to explore whether to again declare a virus state of emergency for Tokyo, where hospital beds have been increasingly occupied by COVID-19 patients.
The ratio of those hospital beds in the capital hit 48.5% Sunday, nearing the 50% threshold for the metropolitan government to consider requesting a state of emergency in an attempt to bolster anti-coronavirus measures.
Unable to view this article?
This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.
Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.
If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see out this support page.
We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.