Some Officials See Japan Entering 7th COVID-19 Wave

Tokyo – Japanese prefectural officials are increasingly believing that the country is about to enter the seventh wave of COVID-19 infections as cases are surging in some regional areas.

The number of new infection cases hit a record high in the week through Tuesday in the prefectures of Iwate, Akita, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Ehime, Oita, Miyazaki, and Kagoshima, according to the health ministry.

“We have to act on the assumption that we’re already in the seventh wave,” Shimane Governor Tatsuya Maruyama said.

Takaji Wakita, head of a health ministry panel of experts, said that the level of immunity acquisition varies depending on the region.

The latest surge in COVID-19 cases comes because infections did not spread much during the sixth wave, Wakita said.