Rapid surge pushes Japan's virus tally past 4M

By Ahmet Furkan Mercan and Merve Berker

TOKYO / ANKARA (AA) – Japan’s COVID-19 caseload surpassed 4 million with more than 84,000 additions over the past day, health authorities reported on Tuesday.

A total of 84,221 new infections raised Japan’s overall tally above 4.07 million, according to latest government data.

The country’s death toll increased by 236 to reach 20,772.

Japan’s virus tally hit 1 million in the first week of August last year and crossed 2 million in late January.

Amid an alarming surge driven by the omicron variant, the caseload soared to 3 million on Feb. 3 and has breached the 4 million mark less than two weeks later.

“In light of the characteristics of the omicron strain, we will reinforce infection prevention measures at schools, day care facilities, elderly care facilities, and the like, establish provisional medical facilities and accelerate administration of a third vaccine dose, aiming at one million doses administered daily,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a meeting on Tuesday.

“We will incorporate these and other measures into our basic policy on novel coronavirus disease control and the entire government will unite in implementing them,” Kishida was quoted as saying in a statement posted by his office on Twitter.

Japan last week also extended the quasi-state of emergency in the capital Tokyo and 12 prefectures for three weeks until March 6.