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Coronavirus: Japan’s Shinzo Abe expands emergency nationwide to stop Covid-19 spread
- The government will also give cash handouts of US$930 to all citizens
- The prime minister has already declared a state of emergency in seven areas, including Tokyo, with more than 9,000 cases nationally
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expanded on Thursday the state of emergency beyond seven prefectures to the entire nation in an attempt to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading further and straining the health care system.
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As Abe extended the declaration to cover all 47 prefectures in the country of around 126 million people, he also said the government will provide cash handouts of 100,000 yen (US$930) to all citizens, approving a rare reworking of a state budget days before its planned submission to parliament.
The nationwide state of emergency will deal a debilitating blow to an economy already on the brink of recession following a consumption tax hike last year. Some governors had asked the central government to include their prefectures amid fears of growing infections.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s minister in charge of issues related to the emergency declaration, said the inclusion of all prefectures was necessary before the Golden Week holidays start in late April and he had consulted an advisory panel that determined such an expansion was appropriate.
“The cumulative number of cases has topped 100 in Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Gifu, Aichi and Kyoto (prefectures),” Nishimura told the panel meeting. “It’s an urgent task for us to take measures to keep the flow of people to the minimum before the holidays.”
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Tokyo, Osaka, and five other prefectures were already under a month-long state of emergency from April 7 to May 6, when this year’s Golden Week holidays end.
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