The government is arranging to have nine out of 10 areas currently under a state of emergency remain under that designation past the end of this month, as it does not see any improvement in the pandemic, government sources have said.
A final decision will be made after consultations with experts this week.
Among Tokyo and the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Okayama, Hiroshima and Fukuoka, where the state of emergency is currently scheduled to end on May 31, the number of newly infected patients has been decreasing in Tokyo and Osaka. However, their medical systems are still stretched thin.
In Hokkaido, which was added to the state of emergency on May 16, COVID-19 patients are still on the rise. "It's difficult to lift the state of emergency amid this situation," a source close to the prime minister said.
An extension would mean delaying the end date yet again for Tokyo and the prefectures of Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo, which have been under a state of emergency since April 25.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato mentioned the possibility of extending the state of emergency past the end of this month on an NHK program Sunday.
Kato said the government would discuss either switching to emergency-level priority measures or "maintaining a state of emergency to a certain degree and then returning to a normal state when they [conditions] have improved considerably."
Some governors in the affected areas were pessimistic. Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said, "We're not yet in a stage to discuss lifting the state of emergency."
The government is considering extending the state of emergency in the nine prefectures until June 20, the date it is scheduled to be lifted in Okinawa Prefecture. Another option is to extend to until June 13.
"Naturally, there is debate on such issues as whether the state of emergency should be ended at different times in different regions," Kato said. "We'll decide from the perspective of wide areas," inferring the possibility of ending the state of emergency all at once.
On the other hand, some within the government feel that because there is not much difference between the measures that can be taken under a state of emergency and pre-emergency priority measures, it is reasonable to end the state of emergency and shift to priority measures in areas that have shown improvement.
In making its decision, the government will closely monitor the situation in the nine prefectures.
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