NAHA -- The Okinawa prefectural government has announced new coronavirus measures, including requests for eateries to stop serving alcohol, following the central government's decision to declare a state of emergency for the prefecture from Sunday through June 20.
Okinawa's COVID-19 measures had initially been compiled by taking into consideration the prefecture's economy, but the local government has decided to take stricter action due to the deterioration of the virus situation.
"Human contact needs to be reduced thoroughly to mitigate the spread of the virus," Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said at a press conference on Friday evening.
The spread of infections has continued since the Golden Week holiday period and coronavirus variants have become more prevalent. Despite an increase in the number of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in the prefecture, the capacity has remained close to its limit.
The prefectural government had asked eateries to close by 8 p.m. since the rollout of emergency-level priority measures on April 12. From Sunday, eating establishments will be asked to stop serving alcohol and school extracurricular activities will be suspended in principle.
According to the Okinawa Convention and Visitors Bureau, about 69,000 people visited the prefecture during the Golden Week holidays from April 29 to May 5, a more than fivefold increase from the same period last year.
A senior prefectural government official said "it was a busy season" for the prefecture, where the main industry is tourism. However, the number of coronavirus cases surged during the holiday period, prompting the prefectural government to ask people to refrain from visiting the area.
Before a decision was made to declare a state of emergency for the prefecture, the local government had considered asking businesses to refrain from serving alcohol during the day, but it opted not to do so after eateries expressed concerns regarding the fairness of the measures, as some establishments were not even complying with requests to close early.
The prefectural government had not been implementing necessary measures, according to the central government.
"We have taken measures, but we must also reflect on the fact that the situation has turned out as it has," Tamaki said. "If we fail to curb cases now, there will be no hope of [visitors] coming during the summer holiday season. We must make every effort."
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