Around 118 people were newly infected due to the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 in the capital of Japan, Tokyo, as reported by the public broadcaster NHK on Saturday, citing metropolitan government officials.
This is for the first time that the total number of cases in a day crossed the 100 mark in Tokyo area which brought the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Tokyo to 891, as per the report.
Tokyo Coronavirus crisis
Tokyo's metropolitan government has strongly urged people to stay at home at the weekend as the mega-city faces a rising number of cases and as speculation simmers that Japan may declare a state of emergency, leading to lockdown.
Separately, a man in his 70s died on Saturday from the coronavirus in the central Japanese city of Kani, Gifu Prefecture, Kyodo newswire reported. It was the first fatal case in the prefecture, Kyodo added. Global cases of the new coronavirus have shot past 1 million with more than 53,000 fatalities. Japan has so far been spared the kind of explosive surge seen in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, with some 3,000 cases and 73 deaths as of Friday.
(With agency inputs)
