Japan Confirms 14,164 New COVID-19 Cases

Tokyo, Feb. 19 (Jiji Press)--Japan newly confirmed 14,164 people with the novel coronavirus Sunday, up by 961 from a week before.

The daily tally grew week on week for the first time in 33 days.

The growth was due partly to the possibility that the number of COVID-19 tests conducted on Feb. 11, a Saturday and public holiday, was relatively small. The outcomes of most of the tests conducted Feb. 11 were seen to have become available the following day, with the data comparison with figures for the latest reporting day.

On Sunday, new fatalities totaled 48 among COVID-19 patients around the country. The number of severely ill patients came to 220, down by one from Saturday.

By prefecture, Tokyo had the largest number of new cases Sunday, at 992, followed by Osaka in western Japan, at 890, Hyogo, next to Osaka, at 764, Aichi in central Japan, at 755, and Fukuoka in southwestern Japan, at 711.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]