The government intends to determine Friday whether to extend the coronavirus state of emergency that is in effect for nine prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, according to sources.
"The direction [toward an extension] has already been decided," a high-ranking government official said Thursday morning.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will meet with Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Norihisa Tamura and other relevant ministers at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday evening to discuss details, such as the length of the extension. The current state of emergency was initially scheduled to end at the end of this month.
It is widely speculated that the state of emergency will be extended to June 20 to match the end date for Okinawa Prefecture.
The government is expected to make a decision on the extension at a meeting of its COVID-19 task force on Friday after hearing the opinions of the subcommittee on basic measures against the coronavirus.
If approved, it would be the second extension of the current state of emergency for Tokyo and the prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo.
The number of new infection cases has fallen in Tokyo, Osaka Prefecture and elsewhere, but it has remained high in Hokkaido and other areas.
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