Tokyo, Jul 27 (FN Bureau) Tokyo confirmed a record 2,848 daily COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, four days after the opening of the Olympics, with health experts warning that the worst is yet to come, local media reported Tuesday. The daily COVID-19 cases of Tokyo tops the previous record of 2,520 cases logged on Jan 7. The nationwide tally of daily infections exceeded 7,000 for the first time since May 12, almost reaching its all-time high of about 8,000 marked on Jan 8. Tokyo’s seven-day rolling average of daily cases went up to 1,762.6, rising 49.4 percent from the previous week. Compared with Tuesday last week, the daily figure increased by 1,461.
Infectious disease experts have warned that the Delta variant of the virus could cause a rapid surge in infections, and the infections would reach a peak around Aug. 3. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met with his Cabinet members including Norihisa Tamura, minister of health, and Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister in charge of the COVID-19 response, on Tuesday to discuss the latest surge of infections. The confirmed infections directly related to the Olympics are still relatively low. The Japanese organizing committee reported on Tuesday another seven COVID-19 infections, including two athletes, with the total standing at 155. The figure going back to July 1 excludes infections announced by the central and local governments.