Japan lifted nationwide COVID-19 state of emergency on Monday after confirming a decline of cases in the country. The lifting will take effect in five prefectures, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama and Hokkaido.
According to Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, this decision does not indicate that the pandemic has ended in the country. Instead, the government aims to balance preventive measures and economy until vaccines and effective medication are available.
Confirming approximately 16,600 cases with roughly 850 fatalities, Japan managed to avoid such devastating outbreak as in the US and Europe. Additionally, Japan was considerably implementing softer restrictions.
Japan firstly announced its COVID-19 state of emergency in April 7 in several prefectures, and later applied it on a nationwide scale. The restrictions, in addition, lasted for a month and a half.
Minister of Economy Yasutoshi Nishimura said that infections in Japan have slowed since May 14. Also, the pressure on the medical institutions has been declining, thus allowing the government to end emergency state.
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Ending COVID-19 Emergency, Japan Reopens Economy
As the government officially declared the end of emergency, Japan is ready to reopen its economy. That said, PM Abe warned that the public should remain cautious while continuing their daily activities.
“If we lower our guard, the infection will spread very rapidly. We need to be vigilant,” PM Abe stated. “We need to create a new lifestyle. From now on we need to change our way of thinking.”
Despite everything, the support to PM Abe from the public has dropped significantly below 30%. The public was upset at the government’s late awareness to address the coronavirus outbreak.
Consequently, the world’s third biggest economy will potentially fall into recession. Considering this possibility, Japan has homework to do to balance its economy once more.
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