Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is postponing his plans to visit India and the Philippines scheduled for later this month, Reuters reported on Wednesday, 21 April, quoting state media.
The decision comes amid a surge in COVID cases in India and Japan.
The PM will remain in Japan and focus on handling the situation in the country, broadcaster FNN said, according to the report.
Japan has been seeing a recent surge in COVID cases, opening up the possibility of fresh curbs in Tokyo and Osaka to check the spread.
In April, Japan had put Osaka, Tokyo, and eight other prefectures under "quasi-states of emergency" with shorter working hours for restaurants and bars, reported Reuters. However, these measures have not helped control the outbreak so far.
Hirofumi Yoshimura, Governor of Japan’s third-most populous prefecture Osaka, told reporters that medical services are in a poor state and there is a need for a state of emergency. “We need stronger measures such as those that would stop the movement of people," he said, according to the report.
Tokyo is also considering imposing an emergency, Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters on Sunday.
The country is scrambling to bring the pandemic under control ahead of the much-postponed Summer Olympics.
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