TOKYO (Reuters) – The coronavirus outbreak in Tokyo is serious and could explode in the next few days, as Japan begins the New Year holiday season, in which millions of people travel around the country, said the governor of city on Wednesday.
The capital registered 944 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, just below the record of 949 registered on Saturday, and medical experts have warned that unless the outbreak is controlled, the city may soon receive more than 1,000 new patients a day .
“Please emphasize life over fun,” Governor Yuriko Koike told a news conference, asking people to stay home as much as possible during the holiday.
Tokyo is at a critical juncture, with a forecast of cold winter and highly contagious strains of coronavirus from Britain and South Africa already detected in Japan, Koike said.
“The situation is extremely serious, we are facing a great wave of virus cases that we have not seen before,” he added.
“The number of cases could explode at any moment. Any of us can become infected at any moment … If we don’t eradicate this now, we will be facing a much worse situation.”
The Japanese government started on Monday to ban the entry of non-resident foreigners after the discovery of the UK variant in Japan, and asked citizens to avoid the parties, family reunions and trips that are common at this time of year.
About 3,400 people in Japan died of coronavirus in total as of Tuesday, out of about 227,390 cases, public television NHK said.
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Stephen COates)