Japan to declare quasi-emergency in COVID-hit Okinawa - paper

FILE PHOTO: Passersby wearing protective face masks, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, walk at a shopping arcade in the prefectural capital Naha, on the southern island of Okinawa, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, October 24, 2021. Picture taken October 24, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government is preparing to declare a quasi-state of emergency in the southern island prefecture of Okinawa due to a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, perhaps as early as this week, the Mainichi daily said on Wednesday.

It would be the first such declaration since Sept. 30, when Japan lifted all states of emergency and quasi-emergency that had been in effect for a good part of 2021.