Difficult to Lift COVID-19 Emergency Sept. 12: Health Min.

Tokyo, Aug. 29 (Jiji Press)--It will be difficult to lift the COVID-19 state of emergency especially in Tokyo on Sept. 12 as currently scheduled, health minister Norihisa Tamura said Sunday. Tamura expressed the view in a television program, mentioning the present situation marked by high levels of daily coronavirus cases in Tokyo and elsewhere. "It will be very important" to secure more hospital beds for COVID-19 patients, including by establishing temporary medical facilities, Tamura also said. He also said he wants experts to look closely into the deaths of two men in their 30s days after they received shots of Moderna Inc. coronavirus vaccine. Their vaccine came from a batch made in the same factory in Spain and in the same period as the batch that contained vials from which foreign substances were found. END