TOKYO, May 16 (NNN-NHK) – Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike, released a road-map for the easing of restrictions in the capital, put in place in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, with the criteria coming on the heels of a nationwide state of emergency being widely lifted the previous day.
The Tokyo metropolitan government’s criteria for the easing of restrictions on businesses, the movement of people and people-to-people contact, will require a number of targets to be achieved for specific periods of time, Koike indicated.
Such targets include, there being fewer than 20 new COVID-19 infections a day, with the percentage of untraceable cases remaining below 50 percent as a weekly average.
She added that, the Tokyo metropolitan government was still in talks with other local municipalities, as well as, business lobbies and representatives, regarding the formalisation of the road-map’s details.
Koike said, the easing measures for Tokyo, if the targets are achieved, would be phased in, after the government lifts the state of emergency declaration for the remaining prefectures, slated for May 31.
The central government lifted a nationwide state of emergency for 39 of Japan’s 47 prefectures on Thursday, saying that the lifting of the state of emergency for the eight remaining prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, will be considered next week.
Koike, meanwhile, urged Tokyo residents to continue to take preventative measures against the further spread of the virus, along with those in the 39 prefectures where restrictions were eased a day earlier, requesting those in the metropolitan area to stay at home as much as possible.
“I would like to ask all please not to forget that Tokyo is still in the midst of a crisis,” Koike said.
In terms of the phased lifting of restrictions, public facilities, such as museums and libraries, will be allowed to resume operations first, followed by other facilities where people tend not to gather in overly large groups, such as theatres, according to the metropolitan government’s plans.
Thereafter, all other facilities will have restrictions lifted, bar those deemed to still present a high risk of infections being transmitted.
In the event, along with the consideration of a number of hospitalised patients and percentage of those testing positive for the virus, the targets after easing measures are in place are not met, the metropolitan government will issue its own emergency “Tokyo Alert” measure.
The alert, if issued, will further urge people in the capital to step up preventative measures and not let their guards down, Koike said.
Tokyo metropolitan government confirmed nine new cases on Friday, with the figure dropping below 10 for the first time since Mar 22.
Following the capital’s peak in Apr, of more than 200 daily cases, Tokyo has seen new COVID-19 cases fall to double-digit levels.
Tokyo, the hardest hit by the virus among the country’s 47 prefectures, has seen the total number of cases top 5,000, compared to the nationwide count of around 17,000.– NNN-NHK