The Japanese government said on Friday there was no need now to declare a state of emergency, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the previous day described the coronavirus as a “national crisis” following a surge of cases in Tokyo.
Japan at this stage is not in a situation where it needs to issue an emergency declaration, top spokesman Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference.
Abe has set up a new crisis task force, seen as a preliminary step towards declaring a state of emergency.
Read more: Coronavirus: Spain's death toll overtakes China's
Remember, Spain struggled to cope on Wednesday with a mounting coronavirus crisis as its death toll exceeded China’s with another 738 lives lost in a single day, and a third senior government minister was diagnosed with the virus.
