Japan’s daily coronavirus cases top 10,000 for 1st time in 4 months

TOKYO. KAZINFORM - Japan's daily count of coronavirus cases exceeded 10,000 on Wednesday for the first time in over four months, as the sixth wave of the pandemic spurred by the virus's Omicron variant continues to spread across the country, Kyodo reports.

Tokyo accounted for 2,198 of the cases, marking the first time in over four months that the count has surpassed 2,000. The daily figure reported by the metropolitan government was more than double the 962 cases logged Tuesday and around a five-fold increase from the previous week.

Osaka Prefecture reported 1,711 new infections the same day, marking the first time the count has exceeded 1,000 since Sept. 15, and close to a seven-fold 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.

Governors of the three prefectures suspect that the spread of COVID-19 infections at U.S. bases in Okinawa and Yamaguchi contributed to the spike in infections.