Tokyo confirmed 8,529 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, more than double the number logged a week earlier for the third straight day, as the nation sees a resurgence of infections with a rapid increase in daily tallies over the past few days.
On Wednesday, new cases nationwide nearly doubled from a week earlier to over 45,000, exceeding the 40,000 mark for the first time since May 18.
Fears have spread over the onset of a seventh wave, likely fueled by a new omicron subvariant, with higher case counts reported in all of the nation's 47 prefectures and cases more than doubling in Osaka and Kanagawa prefectures and Tokyo compared with the week before.
In Tokyo, the number of new infections topped 8,000 for the second day in a row on Thursday, after exceeding that mark for the first time since April 14 on Wednesday. Thursday's daily tally was up by about 4,900 from a week earlier and posted the 20th straight day of week-on-week growth.
Tokyo's seven-day average of new cases came to 5,127.7, compared with 2,542.9 a week earlier.
The number of severely ill patients fell by two from Wednesday to six, while no deaths from the virus were reported in Tokyo on Thursday.