The government decided Wednesday to declare a state of emergency in eight more prefectures and newly apply pre-emergency priority measures in four prefectures.
Both measures will be implemented from Friday through Sept. 12.
The eight prefectures are Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga, Okayama and Hiroshima, all of which are currently under priority measures.
Priority measures will be newly implemented in the four prefectures of Kochi, Saga, Nagasaki and Miyazaki.
This would put 21 prefectures under a state of emergency, and 12 under priority measures, or about 70% of all 47 prefectures in the nation.
"The medical situation is extremely severe. I want to ask everyone, including younger generations, to take thorough measures to prevent infection, as what happens to other people today may happen to you tomorrow," Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of COVID-19 countermeasures, said at a meeting of the government's COVID-19 subcommittee on Wednesday.
In the eight prefectures, the number of newly infected patients is at Stage 4 on the government's alert scale, the most serious level and the standard for declaring a state of emergency.
Hospital occupancy rates are also increasing.
The four prefectures to go under priority measures have also seen a marked increase in the number of new infections.
Thorough efforts will be made in all these areas to secure hospital beds, including the use of temporary medical facilities. According to Nishimura, temporary medical facilities are currently set up in 18 locations nationwide, and there are plans to expand them further.
Outpatient administration of an antibody cocktail treatment for COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms will be allowed at medical institutions where a system has been established for monitoring patients after they receive the treatment.
In tandem with the start of the new school term, up to 800,000 antigen test kits will be distributed to kindergartens, elementary schools and junior high schools in early September. Tests will be actively conducted even on people with mild symptoms such as a sore throat, to prevent infection clusters.
The vaccination of teachers and staff will also be given priority.
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