The
government will let limits on mobility and commerce lapse on
Sunday in five prefectures where the virus appears to have
peaked, but extend curbs until March 6 in 17 more areas where
infections are still relatively high.
"The priority going forward is to try to hold down serious cases
and deaths among the elderly," top health adviser Shigeru Omi
told reporters after a meeting of the panel, whose plan was
expected to be officially approved later in the day.
New deaths rose to a record 271 on Thursday, a tally by national
broadcaster NHK showed, exceeding 200 for the third straight
day. February's 2,446 deaths make it the second-deadliest month
in the two-year pandemic.
A panel of health experts said this week that a surge of cases
caused by the infectious Omicron variant appeared to have
peaked, but hospital admissions and deaths were likely to
continue, chiefly among the elderly.
Kyoto University professor Hiroshi Nishiura estimated 4,339
deaths in the Omicron wave between January and April 20, with
more than 70% in their 80s or older, but added that booster
doses of vaccine could help reduce that figure.
The BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, found in several countries such
as Britain and Denmark, poses a potentially higher risk to
global health than the more common BA.1, researchers in Japan
said in a pre-print study this week.
It said BA.2 was more resistant to vaccine-induced immunity than
BA.1, and more pathogenic in hamsters, though other studies have
suggested similar severity.
"We don't see any difference in terms of severity between BA.2
and BA.1," Maria Van Kerkhove, a technical lead for the World
Health Organization told a briefing this week.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to accelerate Japan's
booster programme, which has covered just 12% of the population.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Additional reporting by Jennifer
Rigby; Editing by Richard Pullin and Clarence Fernandez)
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