Japanese PM Suga cancels his visit to India, Philippines due to massive surge of COVID-19 cases in Japan

On Wednesday, the local media reported that Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga had cancelled his visit to India and Philipines amid the rising cases of Coronavirus infections in Japan.

According to Kyodo News Agency, PM Yoshihide Suga’s visit, scheduled from late April to early May, was meant to reaffirm Japan’s cooperation with the two countries to achieve a free and unrestricted Indo-Pacific.

This would have been the inaugural visit of Suga to India. Last week Suga had visited the United States to meet President Joe Biden for a summit meeting. Japan had reported a total of 540,000 cases of coronavirus infections, a staggering number for a country that has a population of 12.63 crores. The death toll now stands at 9,707. The country had reported the most number of cases from only two cities: Tokyo and Osaka.

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According to government sources, the administration is planning to impose “A state of emergency” in the cities of Tokyo, Hyogo and Osaka, the prefectures where the rise in the severe cases have led to the choking of healthcare systems.

PM Suga is going to meet the health chief, Norihisa Tamura and Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of the country’s coronavirus response. The ministers are going to discuss the possibility of a third emergency declaration, reports ANI.

Last week, it was reported that Japan will have enough coronavirus vaccines to vaccinate everyone older than 16 by the end of September. The Administrative Affairs Minister Taro Kono had declared the news after the successful talks between Prime minister Yoshihide Suga and Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla. The minister had also declared that Japan would follow the footsteps of the US, where the country had launched a vaccine certification process for children aged between 12 and 15.