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Flower lovers in Japan will have to wait until next year to contemplate tulips after several parks have cut hundreds of thousands of stems to prevent people from flocking in large groups to admire the bloom; all with the aim of complying with the social distancing rules imposed to control the coronavirus.

Officials from the city of Sakura, 50 km east of Tokyo, cut thousands of tulips in Sakura Furusato Park and made the decision to cancel an annual flower festival to discourage people from congregating after the coronavirus emergency was declared. .

"Many visitors came over the weekend when the flowers were in full bloom. It became a massive gathering, so we had no choice but to make the decision to cut the flowers," said Sakiho Kusano, a city tourism official. .

Despite the absence of the pink and red flowers that generally cover the 7,000-square-meter tulip gardens at this time of year, the park is drawing large numbers of visitors. The cut flowers were donated to kindergartens.

It is not the only place where it has happened. In Yono Park in Saitama, north of Tokyo, workers have also started cutting the shoots of up to 3,000 rose bushes.

The local government had canceled the annual rose festival, but the park was still open to the public, prompting the decision to remove its main attraction: 180 varieties of rose bushes that bloom in mid-May.

" It is very painful , but we decided to take action after analyzing the situation in other cities," a local official told the Mainichi newspaper , adding that it would take approximately a week to eliminate all the outbreaks.

Coronavirus cases in Japan exceed 12,000, while more than 300 people have died. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency on April 7, encouraging people to avoid unnecessary exits and to respect social distancing. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on Thursday urged residents of the capital to buy food less frequently to reduce the risk of spreading the virus in supermarkets and shopping malls, many of which are still crowded.

Massive rose pruning has not served residents well. "You have to see the roses at their best every year," a 76-year-old man who regularly visits the park told the newspaper. "I think it is a waste, but we have no choice."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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