Japan Decides Full Lifting of COVID-19 Pre-Emergency

Tokyo, March 17 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government formally decided Thursday to lift its COVID-19 pre-emergency measures entirely when they expire Monday.

Earlier in the day, the government secured approval from a panel of experts on the removal of the measures currently covering 18 of the country's 47 prefectures, including Tokyo.

Following the step, the government will move to expand economic activities. But the risk of coronavirus resurgence remains.

The 17 other prefectures are Hokkaido, Aomori, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Ishikawa, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Kagawa and Kumamoto.

The current pre-emergency measures started on Jan. 9 in response to the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The number of prefectures covered by the measures rose to as high as 36.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]