Tokyo, Jan 13 (Agency) Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Wednesday expanded the state of emergency in seven more prefectures, amid a resurgence of the pandemic novel coronavirus cases across the country. The new prefectures which will remain under the state of emergency till February 7 were — Osaka, Aichi, Tochigi to the north of Tokyo, Gifu in central Japan, Hyogo and Kyoto in the west and Fukuoka to the southwest.
“If we work together, we can certainly turn the number of infected people into a declining one,” news agency Kyodo quoted Minister in charge of coronavirus response, Yasutoshi Nishimura as saying. As many as 2,98,172 people have been infected in Japan till now with 4,539 people testing positive on Tuesday.