Japan’s Kansai region including Osaka, Kyoto might see emergency declaration lifted
The government intends to decide Thursday whether to lift the state of emergency, which is still in place in eight prefectures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, sources said.
The plan is to make separate decisions for regions where aspects of daily life overlap.
It appears likely that the state of emergency will be lifted in three prefectures of the Kansai region (Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo). The number of new infections in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, on the other hand, remain above the criteria for lifting the declaration.
The government lifted the state of emergency in 39 prefectures on May 14. Currently the declaration remains in place for eight prefectures — Hokkaido, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo.
The decision is based on a comprehensive assessment of infections, the health care system and the monitoring system, including PCR testing.
As a standard, the number of new infections within a previous week should be about or lower than 0.5 per 100,000 people.
In Osaka Prefecture, the number of infections in the week of May 12-18 was 0.31 per 100,000 people. The occupancy rate of hospital beds for severe cases was 19.1 percent on Monday, and 345 PCR tests were conducted, with the capacity to perform several hundred more.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura told reporters Tuesday that “the state of emergency should be lifted in Osaka Prefecture because we meet the government’s criteria.”
The number of infections per 100,000 in Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures was 0.23 and 0.09, respectively. They also have many open beds for severe cases and established PCR testing systems.
Based on these circumstances, it is possible that the state of emergency will be lifted in the Kansai region Thursday.
In contrast, the number of infections per 100,000 people in the most recent week in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture was 0.76 and 1.07 respectively, which are above the standard for lifting the declaration.
The figures for Saitama and Chiba prefectures are below the standard at 0.31 and 0.27 respectively, but the number for the metropolitan area as a whole is above at 0.66.
The governors of these four prefectures held a video conference Tuesday, where they agreed to strengthen cooperation to prevent a “second wave” of infections. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said, “We must not forget our four prefectures are in the midst of a state of emergency.”
At a press conference Tuesday, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of economic revitalization who is running the new coronavirus taskforce, said, “Basically we will be making decisions for Tokyo and three Kanto prefectures as a unit, and likewise for Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto in the Kansai region.”
While new infections are trending downward in Hokkaido, the figure for the most recent week was 0.93 per 100,000 people.
The government plans to make a final decision on where to lift the state of emergency by assessing the situation going forward and seeking expert opinion.