Tokyo and three of its neighboring prefectures -- Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa -- jointly requested on Wednesday that the central government extend the novel coronavirus state of emergency for Tokyo and also the emergency-level priority measures for the three prefectures. Both are set to expire next Monday.
Also on Wednesday, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Hiroshima and Okayama prefectures requested the government to extend the state of emergency declaration.
The daily moving average number of people newly confirmed to have contracted the virus in Tokyo during the seven days through Wednesday was 607.7. That is about 35% lower than the 933.9 moving average marked on May 13, which was the highest since the current state of emergency and priority measures were put in place.
Yet the pace of decline is slowing down. Since April, Indian variants of the virus, which are believed to be more contagious than the dominant British variant N501Y, have been discovered in more and more cases.
The governors of Tokyo and the three prefectures held a videoconference early on Wednesday evening. After the conference, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike spoke to the press and said she thinks the length of the extension period should be about a month. During that period, the Tokyo metropolitan government is considering continuing its requests to a wide range of businesses to close or operate with shorter business hours.
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