The U.S. military in Japan tallied another 11 coronavirus cases as the nation coped with a surge in new infections in Tokyo and on Okinawa.
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. The U. S. military in Japan tallied another 11 coronavirus cases Friday as the nation coped with a surge in new infections in Tokyo and on Okinawa — areas with a significant military presence. U. S. Army Japan announced three new cases, Yokosuka Naval Base reported two and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni reported one. On Okinawa, the Marine Corps announced three new infections at Camp Courtney and the Air Force reported two at Kadena Air Base. Many of those patients were already in quarantine as new arrivals or because they’d had contact with another infected person. The virus continued to spread in the capital city, where the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 462 new cases on Friday, according to public broadcaster NHK. The previous daily high for the city,472, was reported Aug.1, according to the metro government. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike during a televised news conference Friday called this “a special summer” and urged city residents not to travel outside of Tokyo. “We request that residents refrain from vacationing, traveling far from home and eating out at night,” she said, “in order to go back to a safe and secure life as early as possible.” Okinawa prefecture on Friday reported a new daily high of 100 new cases, many discovered in 2,000 tests administered among employees in the Matsuyama district of Naha city, according to a prefectural public health official. The bars and cabarets of the district, a popular nightlife and entertainment area, are off-limits to service members under military health restrictions. Five Okinawa cases are in critical condition, meaning they require a respirator, the official said. The prefecture set a previous record of 83 new cases on Tuesday and has reported 885 in total since the pandemic began. Japan as a whole announced 1,134 new cases on Thursday, according to the World Health Organization.
