TOKYO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Tokyo metropolitan government on Thursday confirmed 107 new COVID-19 infections in the capital, marking the highest daily increase in two months and the first time the figure has topped 100 since May 2.
The latest daily tally of infections is also the seventh straight day that COVID-19 cases have topped 50 and the highest number since the state of emergency was officially lifted on May 25.
The number is a sharp rise from the 67 cases confirmed a day earlier and the 54 new daily infections confirmed on Tuesday, with concerns mounting about a second wave of the pneumonia-causing virus hitting the capital city of 14 million people.
Downtown nighttime entertainment spots in Tokyo have seen clusters of infections emerge, with the Tokyo metropolitan government and the public voicing concern over this worrying uptrend.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike on Thursday asked people to refrain from visiting nighttime entertainment districts that have been hard-hit by a resurgence of COVID-19 cases there among young people.
"We need to be on alert against the further spread of the virus. This is the stage at which we are," Koike told a press conference on the matter, although suggested that requesting business closures and social restrictions again was not, as yet, being considered.
She said it is important that the reopening of Japan's economy and measures to eradicate COVID-19 are in-sync.
"When the business suspension request and the state of emergency were in place, people had to put up with it. Nobody would want to experience a similar situation again," said Koike.
She also warned that the recent uptrend in young people in their twenties and thirties being infected by the virus, was of concern in light of the possibility of the infections being passed on to more vulnerable elderly people who are likely to suffer from more severe symptoms of the virus requiring hospitalization amid limited available beds.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that the spread of the virus will accelerate if more elderly people get infected," Koike said.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is also in charge of the coronavirus response, to analyze the current situation, in a sign that the government, while saying that reissuing a state of emergency over the rising COVID-19 cases was not being considered yet, has raised its level of concern.
Top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said Thursday that declaring another state of emergency would be the "worst-case scenario," although did not rule out the scenario completely.
As of the latest figures Thursday, the cumulative total of COVID-19 infections in Tokyo now stands at 6,399, the highest among all 47 prefectures in Japan and accounting for roughly one-third of all cases nationwide.
Meanwhile, according to the health ministry and local authorities, 194 new COVID-19 infections have been confirmed nationwide, bringing Japan's nationwide total to 19,090 cases, not including those related to a cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama.
The death toll now stands at a total of 990 people, according to the latest figures Thursday evening. Enditem
