The western Japan prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo will ask the government Friday to place them under a coronavirus quasi-state of emergency amid the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said.The planned joint request comes as Japan's confirmed daily coronavirus cases topped 46,000 on Thursday, setting a new record for the third day in a row and bringing the country's cumulative total to over 2 million.Many areas have been struggling with what has become the "sixth wave" of infections, with Osaka seeing around 6,000 new daily infection…READ FULL ARTICLE
