20,000 new cases nationwide

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:11 JST, January 14, 2022

The daily number of newly confirmed cases of infection with the novel coronavirus nationwide surpassed 20,000 on Friday. This is the first time in about 4½ months, since Sept. 1 last year, that the number of people infected nationwide in one day surpassed 20,000.

Tokyo confirmed 4,051 new cases on the day, exceeding a daily tally of 4,000 for the first time in five months.

The daily tally in the capital on Aug. 27 was 4,350.

In Osaka Prefecture, Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said the number of new cases was expected to be around 2,800 on Friday.

The prefecture had confirmed 2,452 new cases of the virus on Thursday, close to the previous record of 3,004 logged on Sept. 1.

Okinawa Prefecture announced that its number of new cases of the coronavirus was 1,596 on Friday.

Aichi Prefecture announced the same day that 1,317 new COVID-19 cases had been confirmed. This is the first time in about four months that the daily tally of newly infected people the prefecture has exceeded 1,300 since Sept. 5 last year.