Tokyo to be under COVID-19 state of emergency during Olympics

TOKYO, July 8 Kyodo - Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government decided Thursday to place Tokyo under a fresh COVID-19 state of emergency for the duration of the Olympics in an effort to curb a recent surge in infections. The measure, to be effective from Monday to Aug. 22, could see the Summer Games held without spectators at venues in the capital, dealing another blow to an event that was postponed by one year due to the pandemic. "We must take stronger steps to prevent another nationwide outbreak, also considering the impact of coronavirus variants," Suga said after finalizing the decision to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and extending one already in place in Okinawa at a task force meeting in the evening. He is set to hold a press conference later to explain the move. A quasi-state of emergency, which carries fewer restrictions on business activity and targets high-risk areas rather than entire prefectures, will be extended until Aug. 22 for Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa and Osaka. The measure currently in place on five other prefectures -- Hokkaido, Aichi, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka -- will expire on Sunday as scheduled. It will be Tokyo's fourth state of emergency since the start of the pandemic early last year, with the government set, in principle, to prohibit restaurants from serving alcohol and maintain its request for them to close by 8 p.m. While areas under the quasi-state of emergency are also technically subject to the alcohol ban, the governors of such prefectures can relax the rule. "We are hoping to keep people from moving around during the summer break and the Bon holidays until vaccinations move further along," Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of the nation's COVID-19 response, told a panel of experts in the morning. Suga said if the situation improves as more people get shots and the strain on the medical system eases, the government will consider lifting the state of emergency early. The government had initially planned to keep the capital under a quasi-state of emergency but was forced to change course due to the sharp rise in infections. On Wednesday, the Tokyo metropolitan government reported 920 new coronavirus cases, the most since mid-May at the peak of Japan's fourth wave and topping the figure from a week earlier for the 18th straight day. The games organizers including the Tokyo metropolitan government, the Japanese organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee are slated to decide later Thursday how many spectators to allow at venues. They had previously agreed to allow up to 10,000 fans, or 50 percent of a venue's capacity, whichever is fewer, but are reviewing that plan as infections in the capital climb. Venues in Tokyo are likely to go without spectators, and the same may apply to those in nearby prefectures, sources with knowledge of the matter have said. Events being held outside the capital include baseball and softball at Yokohama Stadium and basketball at Saitama Super Arena. Health experts including Suga's top COVID-19 adviser, Shigeru Omi, have warned that the Olympics, set to take place from July 23 to Aug. 8, coupled with the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus first detected in India could trigger a surge in infections. ==Kyodo