On Sunday, Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japanese Economy Minister, said that the government is looking to lift the state of emergency in 34 prefectures, which are not among the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic before the nationwide deadline of May 31.
Nishimura said in a debate on public broadcaster NHK:
“Lifting the state of emergency in many of 34 prefectures that exclude those under specific cautions will likely come in sight as many prefectures have been seeing no fresh infections lately,”
Nishimura, who is responsible for the government’s overall response to coronavirus, said a falling increase in the weekly number of new infections, and the number of new cases per capita would be among the lifting evaluation criteria.
Japan prolonged its national state of emergency last week until the end of May but said it would re-evaluate the situation at a coronavirus task force meeting on May 14 and most likely remove restrictions for certain prefectures beforehand.
The Panthera Post 