The 57-year-old owner of a bar in Sendai's entertainment district could not help but sigh.
"My only option is to shut down for a while," he said Thursday.
The bar is just one of the many businesses scrambling to react to the government's decision that day to implement emergency-level "priority measures" for Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi prefectures, where novel coronavirus infections are surging. The tougher measures to be implemented in certain parts of these prefectures for one month from April 5 include installing acrylic partitions, refraining from providing karaoke services, and asking restaurants, bars and other establishments to shorten their business hours and close by 8 p.m.
The Miyagi prefectural and Sendai city governments had asked businesses to close their doors by 9 p.m. after March 25. The bar's owner had reduced the bar's seating capacity by half to just 10, installed acrylic panels on the counter and taken other steps to prevent infections. But being asked to close another hour earlier from April 5 will likely mean the bar will not be able to operate.
"It feels like my bar is being told to close down," the owner told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
New cases of coronavirus infections have been climbing since mid-March in Miyagi Prefecture. The prefecture reported 42.41 new coronavirus patients per 100,000 residents in the week from March 25 to 31 -- the highest rate of any prefecture. On Wednesday, the prefecture confirmed a record-high 200 new cases.
"It isn't just big clusters that have fueled this surge," said Tohoku University Prof. Ken Osaka, an expert in public health. "The virus has been spreading among a wide range of age groups in various places, such as nursing facilities, childcare facilities and daytime karaoke venues."
The prefecture's occupancy rate of hospital beds for coronavirus patients stood at 43% as of Wednesday, high enough to be classified as Stage 3 in the central government's four-stage scale.
"Given the current situation in the city, stronger measures are important for avoiding a collapse of the medical system," Sendai Mayor Kazuko Kori said Thursday.
-- 'Happened too fast'
Many businesses face a similar predicament in Osaka Prefecture, where the governor has indicated specific measures to prevent coronavirus infections.
The 49-year-old owner of a restaurant specializing in offal and vegetable hot pots in Osaka's Minami district was baffled by the rapid developments.
"It all happened so fast," the owner said. "Where am I going to install sensors to measure carbon dioxide in my restaurant?"
The prefectural government's new "priority measures" apply to restaurants, bars and other establishments in Osaka City. The planned steps aim to make masks mandatory by pressing these businesses to refuse entry to or eject customers who do not wear masks. In addition, these businesses will be encouraged to install acrylic panels and set up carbon dioxide sensors to check whether the premises are being properly ventilated.
In November, the hot pot restaurant spent about 4 million yen to install sophisticated ventilation equipment. But the owner has erected acrylic panels just around the cash register and has not installed any CO2 sensors.
"Am I supposed to place panels between every single customer? There are so many unanswered questions," the owner said.
Establishments in the designated areas also will be asked not to use karaoke equipment.
A 66-year-old woman who operates a karaoke cafe open during the day in Chuo Ward, Kobe, emphasized that she has already reduced the number of customers allowed inside at any one time and that customers wear masks even when they sing.
"I wish they had made a decision taking into account measures we have already taken, rather than uniformly calling for us to refrain from doing business," the owner said.
-- 3 prefs not seek request
The central government has also approached three other prefectures to see if they seek to implement emergency-level "priority measures." But Yamagata, Ehime and Okinawa prefectures, where coronavirus cases are spreading quickly, have decided not to seek this approval.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
