The government has decided to issue a state of emergency for the three prefectures of Hokkaido, Okayama, and Hiroshima from the 16th to the 31st of this month.
We have also applied the "Priority Measures to Prevent Spread" to the three prefectures of Gunma, Ishikawa, and Kumamoto, and the period is from 16th this month to 13th next month.
The government opened the novel coronavirus countermeasures headquarters at the Prime Minister's Office after 6 pm, and Prime Minister Kan, Minister for Economic Revitalization Nishimura, and Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Tamura attended.
Then, we changed the initial policy and decided to issue a state of emergency for the three prefectures of Hokkaido, Okayama, and Hiroshima from the 16th to the 31st of this month.
We have also applied the "Priority Measures to Prevent Spread" to the three prefectures of Gunma, Ishikawa, and Kumamoto, and the period is from 16th this month to 13th next month.
As a result, the areas covered by the emergency declaration will be from 6 prefectures of Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Aichi, and Fukuoka to 9 prefectures, and the areas to which the "priority measures" will be applied are Hokkaido, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Gifu, and Mie. , Ehime, and Okinawa will be expanded from 8 prefectures to 10 prefectures respectively.
At the "Basic Coping Policy Subcommittee" held on the morning of the 14th, which was created by experts on infectious diseases, we consulted on the policy of applying "priority measures" to the five prefectures of Gunma, Ishikawa, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto. However, as experts said that stronger measures were needed, we changed the policy to issue declarations to the three prefectures of Hokkaido, Okayama, and Hiroshima.
It is unusual for the government's original policy to be changed without the understanding of experts, and this is the first time that the target area has been changed.