Tokyo cases hit 1-day high, alarming officials

TOKYO — Confirmed coronavirus cases in Tokyo hit a new daily record with 286, raising alarm Japan may be reopening too quickly.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said one reason for the recent rise in cases is increased testing, which numbered more than 4,000 on Thursday. She said 760 people are hospitalized, seven of them in serious condition, while more than 350 are quarantined at hotels and homes.

An employee wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus cleans windows of a shop Thursday, July 16, 2020, in Tokyo. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he might have to rethink plans for a domestic tourism campaign to help offset losses from keeping borders closed to foreign visitors. Tokyo’s new cases have been rising by hundreds daily. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Separately, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged a need to reexamine the government’s tourism campaign offering discounts for traveling within Japan, set to start next week.

Abe said, “We are looking at the situation with a high level of nervousness.”

Tourism was among the hardest hit in the massive fallout from the pandemic, causing the world’s third-largest economy to tumble into recession.

Japan has had fewer than 23,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, and about 1,000 deaths.