Tokyo saw its highest daily spike in coronavirus cases on Saturday, as Japan edges closer to a state of national emergency.
There were 63 new infections in the last 24 hours – a new record, the metropolitan government said.
The city’s governor Yuriko Koike warned earlier in the week that the Japanese capital was entering an ‘important phase in preventing an explosive rise in the number of infections.’
She asked the city’s 14 million residents to stay at home over the weekend.
The number of daily infections in Tokyo more than doubled on Wednesday from the previous day to 41.
It remained at the level until the weekend, bringing the total number of cases in the capital to 299 by Friday evening.
On Saturday, it was confirmed that there were 63 new cases of coronavirus in the capital. The number of infections has now reached 362 in total.
The news came as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned the country was close to a national emergency, and promised an unprecedented package to protect the world’s third-biggest economy from the damage done by the pandemic.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Coronavirus latest news and updates
