Clamps eased across Japan as cases fall

TOKYO－Japan on Thursday lifted a state of emergency that had been imposed on 39 of the nation's 47 prefectures, reflecting declining rates of coronavirus infection in those areas.

However, among the 39 prefectures, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Gifu, Aichi and Fukuoka have been designated as requiring "special caution" due to the high number of cases relative to the prefectures freed from the emergency order.

Big urban regions like Tokyo and Osaka will remain under the emergency order until they report sustained falls in case numbers and the burden on hospitals eases.

South Korea on Thursday reported a steady rise in new virus infections linked to nightclubs and bars in Seoul's most popular nightlife neighborhood, putting health authorities on alert against secondary and tertiary infections traced to the capital's second-largest virus cluster.

The country reported 29 new cases on Wednesday, taking the nation's total to 10,991.

The weekend will be a critical juncture determining whether the infection cluster－centered on the Itaewon district－leads to community-wide spread, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The agency has also confirmed the detection of tertiary infections in Incheon related to a private academy instructor who had lied about his occupation after a visit to a club in Itaewon.

The government has started offering anonymous testing for those who visited the Itaewon district, urging them to get tested in a responsible manner before the virus further spreads in communities.

Elsewhere in Asia, India's federal railways authority on Thursday ordered the cancellation of train tickets that had been booked ahead of a national lockdown for trips before June 30.

However, the Shramik Special trains ferrying migrant workers back to their home districts will continue, as will services between Delhi and 15 major destinations this week.

As of Thursday, India had reported 78,003 cases with 2,549 deaths.

In the Middle East, children aged under 14 in Turkey were allowed outside for the first time in 40 days as the country implements its normalization plan.

The health ministry said Turkey is getting ready to test foreign tourists for the virus when tourist flights are expected to resume in late May.

More broadly, the tourism sector plans to resume operations in a controlled way in June under the anti-COVID-19 measures, Culture and Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy said on Wednesday.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey rose to 143,114 on Wednesday, with 3,952 deaths.

Job losses

In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned citizens to brace for more bad news as data released on Thursday showed the country's monthly job losses rose to a record high because of lockdown measures.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed 594,300 jobs were lost in April, the largest fall on record, underscoring Morrison's decision to slowly begin reopening the country. The unemployment rate shot up to 6.2 percent, the highest since September 2015.

In Latin America, Brazil registered a record number of new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, surpassing France's tally to become the sixth-worst hit country.

The government confirmed 11,385 new cases in the latest 24-hour period, taking its total count to 188,974.

Mexico's government on Wednesday announced it will ease a nationwide lockdown from May 18 to reactivate an economy that ground to a halt two months ago.

The plan, titled The New Normal, will ease restrictions in three stages. But Mexico's Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatellalso warned that easing the lockdown is fraught with uncertainty.

As of Wednesday, Mexico had reported 40,186 cases of infection and 4,220 deaths.

Wang Xu in Tokyo, Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.