Japan expands COVID state of emergency to Osaka, 3 areas near Tokyo

Japan on Monday expanded its COVID-19 state of emergency, raising the alert over a recent spike in coronavirus cases that comes amid the Tokyo Olympics and threatens to trigger a collapse of the medical system.The government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga decided the same day that only patients with severe cases of COVID-19 can be admitted to hospital, an effective policy U-turn. It had said that all patients except for those with mild symptoms should be hospitalized in principle.The state of emergency, which had covered Tokyo and Okinawa, has now expanded to include the western prefectur…READ FULL ARTICLE