Japan plans targeted COVID curbs as new cases fall but deaths hit record

FILE PHOTO: A medical worker wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) walks inside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward at St. Marianna University Yokohama Seibu Hospital where patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are being treated in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan May 25, 2021. Picture taken May 25, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese health panel approved on Friday a plan for more targeted COVID-19 curbs across much of the nation, as new infections decline but deaths rise to a record level.

The government will let limits on mobility and commerce lapse on Sunday in five prefectures where the virus appears to have peaked, but extend curbs until March 6 in 17 more areas where infections are still relatively high.