Tokyo governor: new virus cases a 'wake-up call'

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on Thursday said the record 224 daily new cases of the coronavirus infections is a "wake-up call" for the city and urged the younger people, who account to most of the cases, to act responsibly so they won't infect the elderly and other vulnerable people.

Thursday's daily rise topped the previous record of 206 found on April 17, when infections peaked in Tokyo when Japan was under the state of emergency.

Koike said the rise in the infections reflected expanded testing, with 3,400 most recently compared to just over 900 in mid-April.

Tokyo plans to further increase its testing capacity from the current 6,500 to 10,000 to quickly find and isolate patients so that the Japanese capital won't have to return to a stay-home mode.

Experts advised Tokyo to step up preparedness at hospitals to increase the number of beds allocated for coronavirus to 3,000 from the current 1,000.

Japan has about 20,000 cases and 1,000 deaths, while Tokyo now has more than 7,200 cases.