The government’s headquarters for combating the spread of a new type of coronavirus in Japan will extend the emergency regime until May 31, Minister for Economic Reconstruction Yasutoshi Nishimura, who leads the work on combating the spread of the infection, told reporters.
“At the expert council, we discussed the timing and zones of the emergency regime. The experts agreed that the period should be extended until May 31, and as for the zones – all prefectures. The official decision on this will be made by the headquarters”, – the minister said to journalists after the meeting of the expert committee.
Earlier it was reported that the emergency regime would be extended, presumably, until May 31. Despite the reduction of infections per day – from 400 to more than 200 in recent days, the goal of reducing contacts by 70-80% has not yet been achieved – if the major cities have approached this goal, the level of reduction in the province ranges from 30-50%. At the same time, 17 governors have a proposal to postpone the beginning of the school year from April, as is happening in Japan now, to September, following the example of most countries in the world.
Since May 8, seven prefectures of Japan have been in emergency mode. From 16 April, it was extended to the whole country, and 13 prefectures were given special status. Japan has not introduced fines for violating the self-isolation regime for individuals or for companies that continue to operate despite an emergency. The authorities called on companies to switch to remote work where possible, and on the population to refrain from going out unnecessarily. At the same time, amusement parks have not been operating in the country for 2 months, concerts and sports competitions with the presence of the public have been cancelled.