COVID-19: Japan Adds More Countries To Entry Ban List

The Government of Japan has added 14 more countries to its entry ban list. 

Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, said Monday that his country was adding 14 more countries as a precautionary measure to curtail the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Japan had initially banned entry from more than 70 other countries across the world, banning foreigners with records of visiting those countries in the past two weeks, while invalidating visas for the rest of the world.

Shinzo Abe, said the additional step on the 14 countries will take effect Wednesday.

The entry ban and the visa restrictions, initially set to end on April 30, are extended until the end of May.

Japan is now under a month-long state of emergency through May 6, for now. Officials and experts are now gauging its effect and whether to extend the measure.

Japan has 13,385 confirmed cases, as well as 712 others from a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo earlier this year, with 364 deaths, according to the health ministry.