COVID-19 Cases Rise More Than Double In Okinawa, US Tightens Infection Control At Military Bases

JAKARTA - The United States (US) military base in Japan imposed stricter measures on Thursday to deal with the increase in COVID-19 cases as the government expressed grave concern over the outbreak.

The US military in Japan said it was "establishing more stringent mitigation measures in further efforts to prevent transmission of the virus."

The measures include requiring US military personnel to wear masks outside bases, as well as for stricter testing mandates, he said in a press release, citing Reuters June 6.

Earlier, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to bar US service members from leaving the base, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

Matsuno said that the Japanese government is very concerned about the outbreak of COVID-19 infection at US military bases.

The southern prefecture of Okinawa, which hosts 70 percent of US military facilities in Japan, is the area with the most infections in the new outbreak, with the central government providing an emergency response on Thursday.

Japan itself suspended entry of nearly all foreign travelers at the end of November, after the Omicron variant was named a variant of concern to the World Health Organization.

But the US military is moving staff in and out of the country under separate testing and quarantine regimes, and concerns about the virus's escape to the general public have left residents near the base uneasy.

To note, new cases of COVID-19 more than doubled in Okinawa on Wednesday compared to the previous day, in a spike that Governor Denny Tamaki said was the result of the Omicron variant.

Separately, a US Marine Corps station in Yamaguchi Prefecture, in western Japan, said it had found 115 new cases on Wednesday, adding to the 182 that occurred the previous day.

Meanwhile, as previously reported, a one-day record of 235 COVID-19 cases among United States (US) troops in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan was confirmed last Saturday, following a cluster infection that broke out last month at one of the US bases there.