Japan to expand quasi-emergency areas as virus cases continue surging – Kyodo
“The government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to place more prefectures under a COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency as the number of cases continues surging, government sources said Sunday,” Japanese media Kyodo News.
The news reports the latest covid infections as more than 50,000 on Sunday after the country reported the highest daily cases of around 54,000 on Saturday.
It’s worth noting that Japan’s Yomiuri News signaled that Japan will put around 16 more areas under quasi-emergency.
Key quotes
Tokyo and 12 other prefectures were added to regions subject to the quasi-emergency measures on Friday after three prefectures -- Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Okinawa -- were placed under the measures from Jan. 9 following a spike in infections that local officials linked to nearby U.S. military bases.
The COVID-19 restrictions are slated to be in place until Feb. 13 in Tokyo and the 12 prefectures, including Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Aichi, Nagasaki and Kumamoto.
The number of cases increased 100 times in three weeks since the start of this year, rising to 54,576 cases on Saturday from 534 logged on Jan. 1.
FX implications
Even with the pre-Fed sentiment weighing on the risk appetite, in addition to the Omicron fears from Japan, USD/JPY prints mild gains around 113.75 while consolidating the previous week’s losses by the press time of pre-Tokyo trading on Monday.