Coronavirus

New coronavirus cases nationwide top 150,000

Coutesy of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases
The omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is seen in an electron micrograph.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

19:29 JST, July 20, 2022

Japan logged more than 150,000 new cases of novel coronavirus infection on Wednesday, exceeding the previous record of 110,662 on Saturday.

In Osaka Prefecture, the daily coronavirus tally hit a record 21,976 on Wednesday, up 11,526 from the same day in the previous week.

There were seven deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday.

The previous high for Osaka Prefecture’s official daily tally was recorded Feb. 11, when 15,291 coronavirus cases were confirmed.

Meanwhile, Tokyo logged 20,401 new cases on Wednesday, about 20% more than the same day in the previous week. Although a week-on-week drop in case numbers had been seen on Tuesday, Wednesday’s count marked a return to the recent pattern of increases.

Wednesday also marked the first time that the number of new cases in the capital has topped 20,000 since Feb. 5, when there were 21,110 new cases.