COVID-19: Tokyo reports over 3,700 cases amid Olympic 2020

Tokyo on Tuesday reported 3,709 new cases of coronavirus amid Olympic 2020 in the city while eighteen more people associated with the Tokyo Olympics have been tested positive.

New cases had topped 3,000 for five consecutive days in Tokyo and doctors have also criticised the government's response to the increasing cases, Kyodo News reported.

Overall 12,017 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country which is the second-highest single-day record.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga decided that only patients with severe cases of COVID-19 can be admitted to hospitals, making a policy U-turn.

Meanwhile, Japan on July 31 declared a state of emergency to Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka, and Okinawa Prefectures and applied priority measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to Hokkaido, Ishikawa, Kyoto, Hyogo, and Fukuoka Prefectures till August 31.

"We ask people to refrain from going out or travelling for non-essential, non-urgent reasons, and to be as careful and restrained as possible regarding returning to their hometowns during the summer and other travel," PM's Office of Japan tweeted a few days back.

"We will continue to do everything in our capacity to implement measures to prevent infections and administer vaccines," added the tweet.

( With inputs from ANI )