TOKYO: The Covid-19 clusters at United States military facilities in Japan have possibly caused a resurgence of infections in some areas of the country.
Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that it cannot deny the possibility of this as one of the factors behind the spread of the virus in their surrounding areas.
Kyodo News reports that Hayashi's remarks came as Japan is probably seeing its sixth wave of the pandemic spurred by the Omicron variant.
Some governors said the increasing cases in their prefectures were attributed to the spread of infections at US bases in Okinawa and Yamaguchi prefectures.
Yamaguchi and its neighboring Hiroshima Prefecture in western Japan as well as south western Okinawa, have been under a quasi-state of emergency since Sunday, with the governors enabled to request restaurants and bars to close early and stop serving alcohol.
US forces personnel coming to Japan were previously exempted from being tested for the coronavirus but a cluster of infections at one of the bases in Okinawa in December prompted the Japanese government to ask the US military to introduce stronger antivirus measures, including a curfew on bases in Japan.
Meanwhile, Kyodo News reports that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has avoided expressing his view on a possible causal relationship between surging infections among the US military personnel and local residents.
He said it was "difficult" to determine the cause of infections.
Kishida has also turned down Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki's request to overhaul the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement, which exempts US military personnel and related people from Japanese quarantine rules.
Kyodo also reports that Tokyo projects the seven-day rolling average of new Covid-19 cases to surge to 9,576 cases daily in a week, based on current trends.
The projection comes as Tokyo reported 3,124 new infections, topping the 3,000 mark for the first time in more than four months and the seven-day average stood at about 1,500.
According to the metropolitan government, the occupancy rate of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients was 13.7 per cent on Wednesday, with 954 people hospitalised.
Gov. Yuriko Koike said the capital will consider asking the Japanese government to declare a quasi-state of emergency if the occupancy rate reaches 20 per cent and a state of emergency if the rate reaches 50 per cent as medical resources may become quickly strained.
Tokyo Covid-19 panel head Mitsuo Kaku warned that cases could go above 10,000 in the near future, saying it was important to be fully prepared in advance.
The capital has also raised its Covid-19 alert to the second highest of four levels as the rapid spread of the Omicron variant continues to drive up infections.
It is the first time since September that the alert has stood at the second-highest level.
Almost 84 per cent of those who tested positive in PCR tests for new strains in the week were apparently infected with Omicron, up from 49.1 per cent the previous week, according to the metropolitan government.
The nationwide tally on Wednesday was 13,244, the highest level in over four months.