Coronavirus

COVID death toll tops 50,000 in Japan

Provided by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases
The omicron variant of COVID-19 as seen in an electron micrograph.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, December 3, 2022

Japan’s cumulative COVID-19 death toll topped 50,000 on Thursday, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun tally. At the end of last year, the cumulative death toll was about 18,400, which means the disease has claimed more than 30,000 lives over the past year. The death toll was 50,070 as of Thursday.

Japan saw 117,778 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, and there were 194 deaths on the day. The number of seriously ill patients was 339, down three from the previous day.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government logged 12,332 new cases, up 6,693 from the same day last week. The capital saw its seventh consecutive day of week-on-week increases, with the seven-day moving average number of new cases increasing 37% from a week earlier to 12,004. It was also confirmed that 21 people in their 60s through 90s who contracted the virus had died.