The government has begun coordinating opinions with the aim of extending the coronavirus state of emergency by a range of two weeks to about a month for most of the 11 prefectures, including Tokyo, where it is now in effect. The state of emergency is currently set to last until Feb. 7.
As local medical service systems, particularly in major urban areas, remain under pressure, the government has concluded that it is necessary for requests for people to refrain from nighttime outings and dining together at restaurants to be kept in place longer.
Prefectures subject to the possible extension include Tokyo and its three neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa; Osaka and its two neighboring prefectures of Hyogo and Kyoto; and Fukuoka.
Meanwhile, the government is also considering lifting the state of emergency for Tochigi Prefecture, where the infection situation has been improving.
Within the government, there are opinions that the state of emergency can also be lifted for Aichi and Gifu prefectures, depending on the infection situation over this weekend, while others say that a state of emergency should also be declared for Okinawa Prefecture, where the virus is spreading among the populations of outlying islands.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister in charge of economic revitalization and the coronavirus response, said at a press conference on Friday, "The occupancy rate of hospital beds remains tight."
He added, "We will hold a meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Basic Action Policy at an appropriate time next week and decide on the government's response."
Then, taking the experts' discussion into account, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will finalize the government's response concerning an extension of the state of emergency declaration.
Should the state of emergency be extended, Nishimura will give advance notice to the Committee on Rules and Administration of both houses of the Diet, with Suga expected to hold a press conference to seek public understanding on the extension.
An advisory board of experts for the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is scheduled to hold its meeting on Monday. The government is expected to move ahead with the procedure for having the state of emergency extended as early as Tuesday. Among the experts, a cautious view prevails about the full lifting of the state of emergency, with concern that relaxing restrictions on people's behavior now would cause a resurgence in the spread of the virus.
For the state of emergency to be lifted, it is considered necessary for six indexes, including the number of new infections and the occupancy rate of hospital beds for treating virus patients, to improve to the equivalent of "Stage 3" from "Stage 4," the most serious level.
According to statistics compiled by the Cabinet Secretariat as of Thursday, the number of new infections per 100,000 people in the last seven days stood at 13 in Tochigi Prefecture, falling short of even the benchmark for "Stage 3."
The occupancy rate of hospital beds designated for use in dealing with a peak of infections stood at 38% in Kyoto Prefecture and 48% in Kanagawa and Tochigi prefectures, all them equivalent to "Stage 3," in which the occupancy rate is higher than 20%.
A seriously ill patient is defined, according to a central government yardstick, as one who is being treated at an intensive care unit at a hospital. But the Tokyo metropolitan government defines seriously ill patients only as those who require either a ventilator or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The number of patients with serious symptoms stood at 567 (as of Wednesday) according to the central government standard, but at 147 (as of Friday) according to the Tokyo metropolitan government standard.
Therefore, if the number of seriously ill patients in Tokyo were calculated by the central government yardstick, the occupancy rate of hospital beds designated for use in dealing with a peak of infections would top 100% in Tokyo. But according to an announcement by the Tokyo metropolitan government on Friday, the occupancy rate of hospital beds stood at 55%.
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