Seventy-four people tested positive with the novel coronavirus across Japan on Friday, with 26 of those cases reported in Kitakyushu, where the virus has spread rapidly.
The 74 cases were confirmed in six prefectures and at quarantine inspections at airports. Kitakyushu saw the highest daily number of infections. In Tokyo, 22 people were confirmed to be infected with the virus.
In Kitakyushu, new cases of the virus were confirmed for the seventh consecutive day. The number of those infected in the period totaled 69.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, state minister for economic and fiscal policy, has cited "more than five new infections per 100,000 people in the past seven days" as one of the criteria for designating prefectures as being subject to a new declaration of a state of emergency. For comparison, the standard for lifting the earlier state of emergency was 0.5 new cases per 100,000 people over seven days.
Over the week through Friday, there were 7.36 infections per 100,000 people in Kitakyushu.
Meanwhile, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday that 10 people who arrived at Haneda and Narita airports from Britain and other countries tested positive for the virus. According to the ministry, these people arrived at the airports on Thursday, and it was the first time since April 6 that the daily number of those infected among arrivals was a double-digit figure.
-- Infection figure tops 'Tokyo Alert' criteria
The number of new confirmed cases in Tokyo was higher than the previous-day figure for the fourth straight day. There is a possibility that the Tokyo metropolitan government will issue its own warning, called a "Tokyo Alert."
For now, however, the metropolitan government tends to continue the phased easing of its business suspension request, for reasons such as the tight conditions at medical institutions having improved. Even if a Tokyo Alert is issued, the metropolitan government will not reinstate its stricter business suspension request immediately, but has stated that it would decide after examining the changes in the number of infections through the beginning of next week.
The metropolitan government has set criteria to gradually ease its request for business suspension. The criteria, for example, call for the average daily number of new cases to be below 20 within the past seven days, while the percentage of those cases whose infection route is unknown should be below 50% and the weekly number of those infected should show a trend of decline.
Should any of the criteria not be met, the metropolitan government intends to consider issuing an alert based on four other indicators, including the status of the medical system.
On Friday, Tokyo saw the number of people infected with the virus exceed 20 for the first time in 15 days. The percentage of those whose infection route remains unknown climbed to 54.9%, and the weekly infection figure has been on the rise.
Also on Friday, the Musashino Central Hospital in Koganei, Tokyo, where group infections have occurred particularly among inpatients, said seven patients were newly confirmed to be infected with the virus, bringing the total number of cases at the hospital to 16.
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