Flowers being chopped off in Japanese gardens to deter visitors

Local authorities in Japan are sacrificing tens of thousands of flowers to ensure that visitors stay at home, as the country attempts to contain thecoronavirus pandemic.

The reason cited by the officials is thatthere is concern that flower festivals could become the source of new infection clusters.

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This week, in an attempt to keep flower viewers away, workers began severing the buds of about 3,000 rose bushes at Yono park in Saitama, north of Tokyo.

与野公園バラ園
薔薇はもうシーズン終わりかけかな〜結構痛んでる感もあったけど、色んな薔薇が咲いてて見応えありました pic.twitter.com/8zDg0UFANr — 真央⚘🍆 (@ma0h_xx) June 2, 2019

The local government had already cancelled the annual rose festival, but the park is still open to the public.

This haspromptiedthe decision to rid the venue of its main attraction, 180 varieties of rose bushes that reach their peak from around the middle of May.

A local official said that''it’s very painful, but we decided to take action after looking at the situation in other cities''.