By JOSEPH DITZLER | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 6, 2021 Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. TOKYO – U.S. military commands in Japan and South on Thursday reported eight new coronavirus infections going back to mid-April. Meanwhile, Tokyo announced another 591 infections , continuing a trend of declining case numbers, according to public broadcaster NHK. However, the number of people stricken severely by COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, rose to 72 on Wednesday, the first time that number has exceeded 70 since February.