Japan's daily coronavirus count tops 13,000
Baku, January 13, AZERTAC
Japan's count of reported daily coronavirus cases exceeded 13,000 on Wednesday for the first time in over four months, as a sixth wave of the pandemic spurred by the Omicron variant continues to spread across the country, according to Kyodo News.
The nationwide tally stood at 13,244, with Tokyo accounting for 2,198 of the cases and marking the first time in over four months that the count has surpassed 2,000.
The pace in which the nationwide figure has surged has been swift, with the more than 1,000 cases confirmed on Jan. 4 now topping 10,000 in only eight days.
The figure reported Wednesday by the metropolitan government also was more than double the 962 cases logged Tuesday and around a fivefold increase from the previous week.
Osaka Prefecture reported the same day 1,711 new infections, marking the first time the count has exceeded 1,000 since Sept. 15, and close to a sevenfold increase from the previous week.
The southern island prefecture of Okinawa confirmed a similar number of cases at 1,644, while the western prefecture of Yamaguchi saw a record 182 new infections.
Okinawa, Yamaguchi and the neighboring prefecture of Hiroshima have been under a quasi-state of emergency since Sunday, with dining establishments requested to cut business hours and stop serving alcohol.
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