Japan has recently seen new COVID-19 cases surge to levels not seen since early this year
, with Tokyo recording 16,878 new cases on Wednesday, the highest since February, while national cases rose above 90,000.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is scheduled to give a news conference at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday that Kyodo said was likely to address both the spread of coronavirus and how to deal with inflation touched off by the weak yen and higher fuel prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “There’s likely to be a further impact from the upcoming three-day weekend and summer vacation,” he said.
Japan in late 2020 launched a travel promotion program but later abandoned it amid criticism that it had helped spread the coronavirus more widely. A similar scheme had been widely expected to start sometime later this year.