Japan may widen state of emergency beyond Tokyo amid virus surge

As Japanese experts study the new coronavirus variant which emerged from Brazil, reports said PM Suga's government is set to widen the state of emergency beyond Tokyo over the surge in virus cases.

Kyodo news reported that the Japan government is set to extend the emergency to prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo.

The Japan prime minister had declared a one-month state of emergency for Tokyo until February 7. Kyodo reported the emergency could be declared in central prefectures of Aichi and Gifu as well.

The government had imposed emergency in Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures as well covering 30 per cent of the country's population.

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"The global pandemic has been a tougher one than we expected, but I'm hopeful we can overcome this," PM Suga said in a televised address, adding,"for this to happen, I must ask citizens to endure life with some restrictions."

Japan had notified the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday on the new virus variant after two adults and two children who had arrived from Brazil on January 2 were detected with the virus.

Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases has said earlier there are some similarities between the newly detected strainand the ones found in the UK and South Africa.

Japan currently has over 267,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 3,900 fatalities due to the virus.