The number of new COVID-19 cases in Japan is rising again — albeit slightly — but remains at a relatively low level, the health ministry said Friday, when it released its first weekly report after stopping counting cases daily following the downgrade of the disease earlier this month.
The number of new patients reported in the week from May 8 through Sunday from around 5,000 designated hospitals and clinics across the country was 12,922, or an average of 2.63 patients per facility, the ministry said. That’s up from 1.8 in the previous week’s average reported from the same institutions, and from 1.4 from April 10 to 16.
During the April 10-16 period, the number of new cases counted under the older method — in which all medical institutions treating COVID-19 patients were required to report the number of new diagnoses on a daily basis — was 56,602, according to health ministry data.