Japan extends state of emergency till end of May

New Delhi : Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday announced that the coronavirus state of emergency has been extended till the end of May.

Abe, citing experts' evaluation on the current situation on the infections, said that the measure, currently through Wednesday, should stay in place as the rise in the number of patients has not decreased significantly enough and hospitals are still overburdened.

Though he maintained that the measures may be lifted early if things remain under control or decreases in coming days.

Abe declared the state of emergency on April 7, initially only for Tokyo and six other urban prefectures, but later extending it to the entire nation and requesting the people to reduce social interactions by up to 80%. He stopped short of issuing business closure requests.

Japan has more than 15,000 cases with over 500 deaths. The number of cases detected in Tokyo accounts to about one-third of the national total.