Okinawa's daily COVID cases to climb close to 1,000 on Thurs.

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said Thursday the number of daily coronavirus cases in the southern Japanese prefecture is expected to rise sharply to around 980 from 623 cases a day earlier, and that the local government has decided to request a quasi-state of emergency be declared.A daily count of that level would be a record high for Okinawa and the prefectural government sees the recent sharp gains in coronavirus cases as attributable to the spread of the Omicron variant at U.S. military bases on the island.The Okinawa government is seeking to impose stricter anti-virus measures under the qua…READ FULL ARTICLE