On April 1, 2021, the Prime Minister held the 59th meeting of the Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, the participants discussed the response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
 
Following the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“Today, we decided to implement priority measures to prevent the spread of disease in Miyagi, Osaka, and Hyogo Prefectures from April 5 to May 5.
 
We took the decision on the implementation in light of the rapidly increasing number of cases of new infections mainly in certain areas and the concerns that medical institutions will be under pressure in the three prefectures.
 
These priority measures, which will be put in place for the first time, are designed to avoid a situation in which the declaration of a state of emergency is necessary and to prevent the spread of infections by taking area- and time-limited measures in a concentrated manner.
 
First of all, the operating hours of drinking and dining establishments will be shortened until 8 PM in areas designated by local governments, and to increase the effectiveness of this measure, we will make it possible for penalties to be imposed. We will adopt a system that provides cooperation money to drinking and dining establishments, in accordance with the size of their business, as strongly requested.
 
In addition, we will intensively implement measures to prevent infections other than the shortening of operating hours.
 
Let me begin with the coronavirus variants. Among those who tested positive, 50 percent of them in Osaka Prefecture and 70 percent of them in Hyogo Prefecture were found to be infected with the coronavirus variants. We request that, the surveillance structure be strengthened further and the citizens refrain from going out for non-essential and non-urgent reasons and traveling to and from other prefectures.
 
Second, we will inspect all drinking and dining establishments in the designated areas and check if necessary measures are in place, such as setting up the acrylic panels. Moreover, we request that other measures are imposed including wearing masks in these establishments.
 
Third, for the elderly care facilities in the designated areas, we will encourage testing at least once every two weeks in order to protect senior citizens from being infected, who tend to develop severe symptoms.
 
Fourth, we will secure hospital beds for coronavirus patients and hotels for patients with mild symptoms to the maximum extent to prepare for a sharp increase in infections.
 
There is no silver bullet in the battle against infections. Even in the case of coronavirus variants, it is important to continue with the basic countermeasures. Until the administration of vaccines reaches all throughout society, we will stop the spread of infections by tenaciously pressing forward with implementing measures at drinking and dining establishments, expanding testing, and ensuring that the medical treatment structure is sound.
 
Against this backdrop, we will suppress infections by flexibly and intensively taking measures focused on local communities to prevent waves of infections arising in local areas from forming a large, nation-wide wave.
 
I ask each minister to continue to thoroughly implement measures, following today’s decision.”