Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Friday that the state of emergency will be expanded to Hokkaido, Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures effective Sunday through the end of May.
Quasi-emergency countermeasures will also be implemented in several cities in Gunma, Ishikawa and Kumamoto prefectures from Sunday until June 13, adding to a growing list of areas under such restrictions.
By next week, the third state of emergency will be in place in nine prefectures and quasi-emergency measures will be active in 10 others.
Earlier this week, quasi-emergency measures were lifted in Miyagi but extended until the end of May in Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Ehime and Okinawa prefectures. Moreover, Gifu and Mie were added to the list, as was Hokkaido.
Officials reported on Friday 854 new cases in Tokyo, 598 in Aichi, 593 in Hokkaido, 314 in Hyogo and 166 in Okayama. Osaka reported 576 cases, the first time it has logged less than 600 infections since April 5.
Meantime, the Japanese government has decided to further tighten entry restrictions by banning foreign residents who are travelling from India, Nepal or Pakistan.
Foreign nationals with a valid resident status as well as Japanese citizens, who had travelled to these three countries, were allowed to re-enter the country on the condition that they spent the first six days of a two-week quarantine at a government-designated facility.
However, officials have decided to temporarily ban to foreign residents who are flying in from those countries due to the Covid-19 spike in the region caused by new coronavirus variants.
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