The government brought eight more prefectures under its state of emergency on Friday in response to a surge of novel coronavirus infections.
The addition of Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga, Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures to the state of emergency brings the total to 21, including Tokyo and the 12 other prefectures where a state of emergency was already in place.
Four more prefectures -- Kochi, Saga, Nagasaki and Miyazaki -- were placed under less strict priority measures, bringing the total number of prefectures subject to such measures to 12.
Both the state of emergency and the priority measures are scheduled to end on Sept. 12.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, the virus has spread rapidly among minors. During the week to Tuesday, 28,999 new infection cases were confirmed in that age group, more than five times the 5,464 that were logged in the week to July 27, a month earlier.
Elementary, junior high and high schools in areas newly placed under the state of emergency are scrambling to implement appropriate measures, such as the introduction of staggered attendance.
-- Tokyo logs 4,227 virus cases
Tokyo confirmed 4,227 new cases of novel coronavirus infections on Friday. The number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients in the capital hit a record high of 294, up 18 from the previous day, while 18 deaths of people of ages ranging from 30 to 99 were confirmed Friday.
According to the Tokyo metropolitan government, the daily tally dropped by 1,178 from the same day a week earlier. It was lower than the figure logged on the same day last week for the fifth consecutive day.
The seven-day moving average of new cases was 4,185, down 11% from the previous seven-day period of 4,722.
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