Tokyo to end virus emergency ahead of Olympics; quasi-emergency will follow

TOKYO: The Government of Japan has agreed to lift the virus emergency of Tokyo on June 20, ahead of the Olympics, and to take quasi-emergency measures.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that the state emergency placed in Tokyo in the month of April, which limited ar and restaurant opening hours and bans them from selling alcohol, will end from June 20, a month ahead of Olympics, though it will remain in force in Okinawa.

"The number of infections nationwide has been declining since mid-May and the situation in terms of hospital beds is steadily improving," Suga said.

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In place of the emergency, the government will implement so-called "quasi-emergency" measures in Tokyo and six other areas until July 11.

The existing set of rules allow only 5,000 people or 50 percent of venue capacity to gather at a large event.

And on Wednesday, the government approved an upper limit of 10,000 spectators for areas not under any restrictions.

Overseas fans have already been banned from the Games for the first time, and organisers said they would wait to rule on domestic spectators until the emergency was lifted.

Japan has fallen from its fourth pandemic peak and despite avoiding harsh lockdown, the country has seen approximately 14,000 deaths as of.

But experts are fearing that huge crowd gathering at Olympics might be proven grim for the country as well.

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