Japan Hit by Nationwide Flu Outbreak

Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)--The average number of influenza patients per monitored medical institution has exceeded 1.0 in all 47 Japanese prefectures, signaling a nationwide flu outbreak, a health ministry announcement showed Friday.

The ministry said that the number of flu patients at some 3,000 regularly monitored institutions across the country came to 7.17 on average in the week through Sunday.

While the figure was slightly lower than 8.48 the previous week, a ministry official said, "The decline may be temporary, given trends in previous years."

By prefecture, Okinawa logged the highest figure with 42.50 people, standing above the warning level of 30. The southernmost prefecture was followed by 14.17 in Saitama, 12.50 in Ibaraki, 12.33 in Aichi and 10.18 in Gifu, all of which exceeded the alert level of 10.

The ministry is asking the public to take basic precautions against infection such as handwashing and covering the mouth when coughing.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]