Coronavirus: Avoid bars, music venues, nightclubs, PM Abe urges
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Many small restaurants in Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku, Tokyo, are closed due to Japan's measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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TOKYO • Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday called on people nationwide to refrain from visiting late-night entertainment venues to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
He mentioned bars, nightclubs and live music venues as examples of places to avoid, in comments during a session of a government panel charged with determining measures to fight the pandemic.
There were 197 new Covid-19 cases in Tokyo yesterday, the highest daily tally so far, Kyodo News reported.
Mr Abe is now calling on all of Japan to avoid such venues, compared with a plea earlier last week to refrain from visiting them in Tokyo and six other districts subject to an emergency declaration.
The Abe administration declared a month-long state of emergency covering seven prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, last Tuesday, fuelling concern that a plunge in business activity will cause a sharp economic downturn in the country.
Still, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday said that Japan may have to ramp up its measures to tackle Covid-19 after cases have been found in some parts of the country with no known links to other outbreaks.
"Japan has seen cases of Covid-19 in three prefectures including Tokyo that are not linked to known chains of transmission," Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, told a press conference. "That is not good, but they are looking."
Japan may have to scale up measures in some prefectures, he said, but also noted that the country, with its teams of "cluster busters", has gained a lot of very useful information, including that only one in five infected people spread the disease.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
