According to NHK News [1, 2] Japan’s Coronavirus Task Force has extended the country’s state of emergency to May 31st.
On April 7th, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a state of emergency across Japan. This resulted in a 108 trillion yen stimulus package (est. $1 trillion USD), and all schools being closed early a few weeks prior.
The current state of emergency which includes Tokyo and 11 other prefectures was originally intended to end on May 6th, the end of Japan’s Golden Week; which is a series of consecutive holidays that are a common vacation time in Japan.
The daily number of new infection in Japan is allegedly on a downward trend. Prefectures outside of the 11 designated for the state of emergency are expected to exercise their own discretion. The intention being to balance healthy prevention with necessary economic activity.
Abe intends to reassess the duration of the extended state of emergency, with a full analysis around May 14th. The intention being to hopefully end it earlier than the current May 31st.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events.
This includes postponements of GDC, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the physical events for EVO 2020 and Fortnite Competitive tournaments, and cancellations E3 2020 (including digital events), the physical event for Gamescom 2020, and Comiket 98.
We also reported on Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris being delayed due to the pandemic hindering development, along with EMS and Airmail shipments from Japan to the US ceasing.
The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 3.531 million total confirmed cases worldwide, and over 2.148 million active cases. There have been over 248,000 deaths, however over 1.135 million people have made a “total recovery.”
Japan has had a total of 14,887 cases (10,419 active cases), 487 deaths, and 3,981 recoveries.
