Hyogo Prefecture announced on the 18th that 12,268 people in the prefecture were newly confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus.
That's 111 fewer than last Thursday, but it's the second-highest number of infections in a single day so far.
In addition, the prefecture withdrew the three people announced as infected people on the 7th of this month because they were duplicates.
The number of confirmed infections in the prefecture reached 782,884.
The number of infected people does not include those who are self-medicating.
The number of severely ill patients was 42, unchanged from the 17th.
The prefecture and the cities of Kobe, Amagasaki, Nishinomiya, and Akashi also announced a total of 14 deaths of infected people.
A total of 2,498 people have died from the virus in the prefecture.