Japan Lifts State Of Emergency Across Whole Country

Japan on Monday lifted the state of emergency, which was imposed to combat the coronavirus outbreak, across the whole country, local media reported.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to Kyodo News.

"I have decided to end the state of emergency across the nation," Abe said in a news conference stressing that the country has taken under control the COVID-19 virus in just over a month and a half.

The move covered Tokyo, the prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama, as well as Hokkaido in northern Japan, according to Kyodo.

Free of restrictions, citizens are now allowed to go out freely and businesses to resume operations with the fresh decision.

Museums, restaurants opening

The first phase is planned to begin on Tuesday and museums and libraries will open while restaurants and eateries will be allowed to stay open until 10 p.m. local time (1300GMT).

Also, with the second phase which may begin by the end of the month, it is planned to reopen movie theaters and shops selling products while karaoke saloons, live music shows and gyms will be closed due to the high risk of group transmission.

The decision was taken following the advisory panel's suggestion to lift the emergency earlier in the day, based on the number of new cases reported in the last week, the eligibility of medical resources, virus testing capacity and monitoring capacity of the spread of the virus, the report said.

New COVID-19 infections fell below 0.5 per 100,000 people in the past week, according to a benchmark used by the government and experts in the country.

In all prefectures, except Kanagawa and Hokkaido, that threshold have been cleared.

Emergency removal to bring gradual economic recovery

Abe earlier lifted the state of emergency in 42 of the nation's 47 prefectures after the number of the new coronavirus cases gradually went down in the country.

Japan had imposed a state of emergency on April 7 for a period of one month to combat COVID-19 and later extended it until May 31.

With the removal of the state of emergency in last five prefectures, which account for around a third of Japan's gross domestic product, a gradual recovery is expected in the economy.

Japan registered 16,550 coronavirus cases, while 820 people have died and 13,413 others recovered from the disease in the country, according to the US based Johns Hopkins University. -