No letup in Tokyo as rising cases prompt pleas on safety

Tokyo reported 258 new coronavirus cases on Monday, marking a seventh consecutive day of increases above 200 in the capital as Japan contends with a resurgence in the virus.

As of Monday, cases newly reported across Japan topped 1,000 for a fifth straight day, with over half the infections declared untraceable and "spread in homes, medical institutions and among elderly people", said Shigeru Omi, head of a panel of experts advising the Japanese government.

With the rise in cases, concerns are growing over an upcoming Obon holiday, which starts next Thursday, many young people are likely to return home to pay their respects to the dead and spend time with often-elderly relatives. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Monday that the government will not ask people to refrain from travel.

"We are not asking people to refrain from travel across the board. We are just asking them to be very cautious," said Suga, the government's top spokesman.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe backed up this message in calling on people to keep taking protective measures against the virus.

At the prime minister's office on Monday, Abe said: "Shops are selling a variety of masks. I would like to ask people to wear masks when going out as a prevention measure."

No signs of slowdown

The coronavirus is showing no signs of the once hoped-for summer slowdown in Japan. Infections that had largely been concentrated in the capital have spread to other urban areas and regions that had not seen cases for months.

"It seems that the measures to trace clusters had reached their limits, and it is necessary to further expand the monitoring efforts to find infected people quickly," said Mitsuyoshi Urashima, a professor of molecular epidemiology at Tokyo's Jikei University.

In response to the growing number of cases, local government officials have started to backtrack on moves to reopen economies.

Yoshihito Niki, a professor of infectious diseases at Showa University's School of Medicine, said the national government's haste in reopening the economy is to blame for the resurgence in COVID-19.

"This is the result of the government prioritizing economic activity by getting people to move around again over the need for infection control."

Agencies contributed to this story.