The Latest: Osaka seeks tougher virus state of emergency

TOKYO — Japan’s western metropolis of Osaka has decided to ask the government to declare a state of emergency in the region after ongoing alert measures failed to control the spread of a more contagious coronavirus variant.

The decision by Osaka’s governor to request a third state of emergency comes just 50 days after a weaker state of emergency ended. A new state of emergency, under a law toughened in February, would allow authorities to issue binding orders for business owners to close or shorten service hours.

Measures for the general public, including mask wearing and staying at home, would remain non-mandatory requests. Osaka is expected to close theme parks, shopping malls and other commercial facilities to drastically reduce public activity for a few weeks.

Japan has recorded 537,317 confirmed cases and 9,671 confirmed deaths. Those are low numbers overall, but worse than some other Asian countries

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— Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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