Japan warns of COVID surge, Tokyo raises alert level

Japan warned on Thursday that a new wave of COVID infections appeared to be spreading rapidly and urged people to take special care ahead of an approaching long weekend and school summer vacations. Tokyo’s 16,878 new cases on Wednesday were the highest since February, while the nationwide tally rose above 90,000, in a recent surge of COVID-19 infections to levels unseen since early this year. The Japanese capital marked 16,662 new cases on Thursday. In his first news conference since former premier Shinzo Abe was killed and after the ruling coalition won an election on Sunday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the highest level of caution was needed. “The coronavirus is spreading throughout the nation and through all age groups,” he said, urging people to make sure they got their booster shots - especially those in their 20s and 30s, whose vaccination rate is lagging. "With summer vacations coming up, interaction between all generations will be increasing.” Additional steps included making fourth shots available to a wider range of people and establishing free testing sites at railway stations and airports, he said. “At this point, the number of seriously ill and deaths are still low. But the number of hospital beds in use, although low at this point, is on the rise,” Kishida said. But he added that no restrictions on movement were needed yet and he had no immediate plans to tighten border controls above the current level, which - with tourists limited to small group tours - remain among the strictest in the world.<br/>