Health officials confirm 86 COVID-19 cases at disability welfare facility in Chiba Prefecture

Written with extracts from AP via The Mainichi

March 29th 2020

TOKYO & CHIBA – Health officials in the Japanese prefecture of Chiba, near Tokyo, reported a total of 86 confirmed cases of the virus over the weekend in a mass infection at a facility for people with disabilities.

The Chiba prefecture said 58 people tested positive at the facility Hokuso Ikuseien on Saturday. Infections of 28 more people at the facility and their families were confirmed Sunday.

Another 26 staff members at Eiju General Hospital tested positive in Tokyo, where rapid increase of new cases have prompted the Japanese capital to request its residents to stay home. Tokyo reported 68 new cases Sunday, a new record for a single-day increase, bringing a prefectural total to about 430.

Japan has more than 2,400 cases, including 712 infected on a quarantined cruise ship near Tokyo, with 62 deaths.