TOKYO, Nov 10 (NNN-NHK) – Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido reported 200 new daily COVID-19 infections, marking the highest level for the region, since the outbreak of the virus in Japan.
Infections in Hokkaido have been in triple digits for four successive days, with officials raising the pandemic alert level for Hokkaido to level three on its five-tier scale.
Yesterday’s figure saw the northern prefecture’s cumulative total rise to 4,221, according to the latest figures released in the evening, with health officials saying, the drop in temperature and more people staying indoors in poorly ventilated rooms could be responsible for the spike in infections in Hokkaido and other northern regions in Japan.
Rising infections in Hokkaido, a popular travel destination, could see it cut from the government’s “Go To Travel” subsidy campaign.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Katsunobu Kato, intimated that, removing Hokkaido from the domestic travel campaign was a possibility and discussions in this direction were taking place.
In Tokyo, meanwhile, the hardest hit by the virus among all of Japan’s 47 prefectures, 157 new daily cases were reported yesterday, with the figure dipping from 189 infections confirmed a day earlier.
The western Japanese prefecture of Osaka, second hardest hit by the virus, reported 78 new cases yesterday, bringing its total case load to 13,894 infections.
Tokyo’s neighbouring prefecture of Kanagawa, meanwhile, confirmed 36 new cases, bringing its tally to 9,374.
Nationwide, 779 new daily infections were confirmed yesterday, bringing Japan’s cumulative total to 109,280, not including those connected to a cruise ship, quarantined near Tokyo earlier in the year.
The latest figures last night revealed the national death toll from the virus stood at a total of 1,849 people.– NNN-NHK
