Japan's COVID quasi-emergency to completely end: PM Kishida

Japan will end all remaining COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency curbs as scheduled next week as the number of new infections has been trending downward, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday.The 18 areas to have the curbs lifted include the Tokyo metropolitan region covering Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, Aichi in central Japan, Osaka and neighboring Kyoto. A formal decision on ending the emergency is expected Thursday.The quasi-state of emergency, in place since late January due to the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, has allowed governors to reques…READ FULL ARTICLE