Doors to shut in Tokyo, but S. Korea brighter in mixed Asia view
TOKYO－Tokyo authorities have asked some businesses to close and a central Japanese prefecture announced a state of emergency amid fears the national government's measures are too little and too late.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she was targeting a range of businesses for shutdowns from Saturday during a monthlong emergency, after resolving a feud with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's team over the extent of the closures.
The governor of Aichi in Japan's industrial heartland declared its own state of emergency on Friday and has asked to be added to the government's targeted regions. Gifu, also in the central region, was poised to issue an emergency declaration and at least one other prefecture was set to do the same.
The number of cases in Japan has risen to 5,548, with 108 deaths.
South Korea's new coronavirus infections fell below 30 on Friday for the first time since Feb 20, with the southeastern city of Daegu, once the epicenter in the nation's outbreak, reporting no new cases for the first time.
The 27 new cases brought the nation's total infections to 10,450, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, 91 people who fully recovered from the novel coronavirus have tested positive for COVID-19 again.
The virus was highly likely to have been reactivated, instead of the people being reinfected, as they tested positive again in a relatively short time after being released from quarantine, the KCDC said.
The death toll from COVID-19 crossed 4,230 in Iran on Friday as a slowdown in infections continued. Meanwhile, the tally of infections in Israel approached 10,000.
Thailand on Friday reported 50 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 43-year-old woman. Since the outbreak escalated in January, Thailand has reported 2,473 cases and 33 fatalities, while 1,013 patients have recovered and gone home.
In Indonesia, soldiers and police hit the streets of Jakarta on Friday to enforce the country's toughest social-distancing rules.
Violators face heavy fines and up to a year in jail for breaking the new rules, which include a ban on gatherings of more than five people, limiting restaurants to online delivery orders and reductions in public transport.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday extended a lockdown for two weeks aimed at stemming the spread of the virus, saying that to end it too soon would risk a "massive and uncontrollable resurgence" of the virus.
South Africa has recorded the most confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa, at 1,934.
Ramaphosa said the lockdown had succeeded in reducing the country's average daily increase in new novel coronavirus cases from 42 percent to about 4 percent.
Agencies - Xinhua
