Fukuoka Prefecture decided to make a request Wednesday to the central government to lift the state of emergency in its prefecture at the end of this month.
The state of emergency currently covers 10 prefectures and is scheduled to end on March 7.
The prefectural government made the decision after having discussions Wednesday afternoon with municipal governments in the prefecture.
While the prefecture is considering easing some guidelines for eating and drinking establishments, it will continue to request them to shorten their business hours.
There were two criteria set by the prefecture for making the request to the central government: the daily average number of newly infected people in the last seven days falls below 180 for seven consecutive days; and the occupancy rate of hospital beds secured for the peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is 760, is expected to fall below 50%.
The prefecture has been reporting fewer than 100 newly infected people on a daily average, and the hospital bed occupancy rate for the disease as of Monday was 49.6%, falling below 50% for the first time since the prefecture set the criteria on Feb. 2.
On Tuesday, the governors of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures held an online discussion with Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of economic revitalization who is tasked with coronavirus measures, during which they requested the lifting of the declaration by the end of February.
Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura followed suit the same day.
The state of emergency also applies to Tokyo, Chiba, Gifu, Kanagawa and Saitama.
213 test positive in Tokyo
Tokyo metropolitan government reported Wednesday that 213 people in the capital were newly confirmed as having contracted the novel coronavirus.
The figure was below 300 for the fourth day in a row. The number of COVID-19 patients with serious symptoms was 69, eight fewer than on Tuesday.
According to the metropolitan government, the daily average number of newly infected people in the last seven days is 294.7, falling below 300 for the first time in about three months, since Nov. 14, when the number was 296. The latest seven-day figure is 83.3% of that of the previous seven-day period.
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