At the Hoshinoya Tokyo hotel in Japan, diners can enjoy meals while protecting themselves against the spread of the coronavirus.

Hotel staff demonstrate the "lantern dining experience", where transparent partitions - created by Japan's traditional craftsmen - are designed to reduce the transmission of droplets between diners.

Measuring more than 1m tall and 70cm wide, each lantern is also lit by a bulb, so that the diner's face can be seen clearly.

Guests staying at the hotel who pay 30,000 yen (S$350) for a venue charge can invite others to dine with them under the partitions.

Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert to the highest level yesterday after reporting a record 21,576 infections the previous day, when the nationwide tally reached a record 94,815, driven by the infectious Omicron variant.

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