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On July 30, 2021, the Prime Minister held the 71st 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,
 
 “The number of new infections nationwide exceeded 10,000 yesterday, with infection spreading at an unprecedentedly rapid speed mainly in the Greater Tokyo area and Kansai area.
 
With a rapid shift to the highly infectious Delta strain, more patients will develop severe symptoms if new cases keep on increasing in number, which may put the availability of hospital beds under further strain.
 
In light of these circumstances, for the period until August 31, we have decided to apply the declaration of a state of emergency to Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Osaka prefectures, and to apply priority measures to prevent the spread of disease to Hokkaido, Ishikawa, Kyoto, Hyogo, and Fukuoka prefectures. We have also made the decision to extend the declaration of the state of emergency for Tokyo and Okinawa prefectures until August 31.
 
Reducing the risk of infection associated with dining and drinking will continue to be the key to measures against infection. In addition to swiftly making payments to dining and drinking establishments in exchange for their cooperation, we will expand patrols of such establishments by each prefecture, thereby making countermeasures more effective.
 
We ask people to refrain from going out or traveling for non-essential, non-urgent reasons, and to be as careful and restrained as possible regarding returning to their hometowns and other travel during the summer vacation and Obon holiday periods
 
With regard to vaccinations, nearly 80 percent of the elderly aged 65 and above will have received their second dose by the end of this month. We have already seen a considerable decrease in the numbers of infections and patients with severe symptoms among elderly people aged 65 and above. From now, we will focus on administering vaccines to people in the younger generation, with the aim of having more than 60 percent of the public finish receiving their first dose and more than 40 percent their second dose by roughly the last week of August.
 
In addition, we will actively offer to patients with mild cases over 50 years old and others a revolutionary pharmaceutical treatment that slashes the risk of developing severe symptoms by 70 percent.
 
I ask each minister to make all-out efforts to work on preventive measures against infection and vaccinations.”