Japan declares nationwide state of emergency

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expanded on Thursday the state of emergency beyond seven prefectures to the entire nation until May 6 in an attempt to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading further.

Tokyo, Osaka, and five other prefectures were already under a month-long state of emergency from April 7 to May 6, according to local media.

Alarmed by the prospect of an explosive surge in COVID-19 cases, Abe has called for an up to 80 percent reduction in person-to-person contact.

Japan has confirmed 9,800 COVID-19 cases, 195 deaths so far.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in late 2019 in China’s Hubei province, and the virus has spread to 210 countries and territories since then.

To date, COVID-19 cases surpassed 2,000,000 globally, resulting in more than 520,000 recoveries and over 136,000 deaths.

On February 11, the WHO officially named the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as COVID-19, and on March 11, declared it a pandemic.