Govt. Wants Firms To Reduce In - Office Workers
The Japanese government plans to continue asking businesses to let more employees work from home, to substantially cut social contact for the coronavirus in state-of-emergency areas.
The government wants to mitigate person-to-person contacts by at least 70 percent, or preferably by 80 percent, in Tokyo and six other prefectures. It says the reduction will help contain the spread of the virus as quickly as possible.
The seven prefectures are under the roughly month-long state of emergency declared last Tuesday by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
The government says people's movements have declined by about 60 to 70 percent in major cities. It attributes the decrease to its request for people to avoid non-essential outings.
But the government says the number of commuters has not dropped as anticipated. It plans to continue asking businesses to slash the number of in-office employees by 70 percent or more through such measures as teleworking.
Abe said on Saturday that the 70-to-80 percent reduction target must be achieved to allow the state of emergency to be lifted in one month. He added people's further cooperation is crucial to attain the goal.
Meanwhile, the government began disclosing data showing to what extent human traffic has risen or fallen in the central districts of the seven prefectures.
People can visit the website of the Cabinet Secretariat and see the metrics calculated based on such data as location information from mobile phones.
The figures do not demonstrate the number of person-to-person contacts. But the government hopes the data will encourage people and companies to help attain the reduction target.
Meanwhile, the government is arranging with industrial sectors to set aside dust protective masks for medical institutions, where high-performance surgical masks are in short supply. The two types of masks are similar in preventing viral infections.
