The governor of Japan's major western prefecture of Osaka, Hirofumi Yoshimura, said he would cancel Olympic torch runs slated to take place on the public streets due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
"Today, we asked people in the whole of Osaka to refrain from engaging in unnecessary, non-essential outings. So, we are cancelling torch relay that will take place on public streets in the whole of the prefecture," Yoshimura said on Wednesday.
The torch relay, which also includes events in parks and other open spaces, is slated for mid-April in Osaka prefecture.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
