Tokyo, 12 prefs. to remain under COVID quasi-emergency until March 6

The government also plans to add Kochi in western Japan, effective Saturday until March 6, to the quasi-emergency list, meaning that the measure will be in effect in 36 of the nation's 47 prefectures amid growing worries about an additional strain on the health care system, Kyodo reports.

It is unclear whether the measure for the other 22 areas which will end later this month will be extended.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to make a formal decision later Thursday after a panel of medical and other experts endorsed the government plan in the morning.

The areas that will have the quasi-emergency measure extended beyond Sunday are Tokyo and its three neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, along with Gunma, Niigata, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Kagawa, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Miyazaki.

The extension is based on requests by prefectural governments. Under the quasi-state of emergency, governors can ask restaurants and bars to shorten business hours, and stop or limit the serving of alcohol. They can also request that people refrain from nonessential travel between prefectures.

«We need to continue with our efforts to reduce the burden on the health care system,» economic revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa, who is responsible for the government's COVID-19 response, told the panel meeting.

«Our focus with the measure should be on preventing a halt to social and economic activities as much as we can,» he added.

Kishida has said the pace of increase in new cases has been «clearly slowing,» but health experts say the latest wave of infections has yet to peak, complicating efforts by the government to contain the spread of the virus and keep the economy going at the same time.

Health experts say the number of patients with severe symptoms and COVID-related deaths have been on the rise. The government plans to set up temporary medical facilities to add a combined 1,000 beds in Tokyo and Osaka and help them secure medical staff.

Kishida is seeking to rev up the inoculation drive, setting a target of administering 1 million booster shots a day by the end of February. Opposition lawmakers have criticized the government for being slow in the booster rollout.

Takaji Wakita, an expert who sits on a health ministry advisory panel, has said more time will be needed to see whether the daily count of COVID-19 cases will enter a downtrend.

Wakita told reporters on Wednesday that BA.2, a new version of Omicron that is seen as more transmissible, is «not dominant» for now in Japan, though health experts worry that the subvariant, if it spreads, would fuel a further surge in infections.