Difficult to end COVID emergency as planned: Japan health minister

Japan's health minister said Sunday it will be "very difficult" to lift a COVID-19 state of emergency on its planned Sept. 12 expiry, as the country is still struggling to contain surging coronavirus infections and strains on the medical system."Given the current situation, it's probably very difficult" to end the emergency declaration covering 21 of Japan's 47 prefectures as scheduled, health minister Norihisa Tamura said on a NHK TV program.The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Tokyo, for example, must fall below 500 for the state of emergency to be lifted, he said. The capital reported 3…READ FULL ARTICLE