Few pedestrians roam the streets of the Shinbashi entertainment district in Tokyo at around 8 p.m. (Yuji Masuyama)
Government leaders apologized to the public for the extended COVID-19 state of emergency in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area while some experts raised concerns about the timing of the new deadline.
The central government’s panel of experts on March 5 approved the proposal to continue the state of emergency for the novel coronavirus for two weeks for Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba beyond the March 7 deadline.
The state of emergency, in place since Jan. 7, is now scheduled to end on March 21 for those areas.