As the UK strain of COVID-19 has quickly taken over the Kansai region that includes Osaka, Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura has announced that he will petition for a third State of Emergency declaration in Osaka Prefecture, which is home to Universal Studios Japan. The latest Emergency will include provisions to close locations “where infection risks are high” such as theme parks, per Kyodo News.
According to Kyodo News, the Governor seeks to upgrade Osaka Prefecture from its quasi-Emergency imposed April 5th to a full State of Emergency Declaration. This would be the third such emergency, after the first seen last April and May, and the second from January through March of this year. In spite of the quasi-Emergency, Osaka logged a record-shattering 1219 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.
Gov. Yoshimura was quoted yesterday stating “It is necessary to request the closure of large-scale commercial facilities such as theme parks and eateries where infection risks are high.”
Universal Studios Japan was closed for 99 days from February 29th through June 7th last year and would become the only Universal Studios park worldwide to be closed, and to re-close. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike also indicated that she is open to declaring another State of Emergency, which could result in the re-closure of Tokyo Disney Resort, per Kyodo News.
Stay tuned to Universal Parks News Today and WDWNT as these stories develop.
Maybe if more than 1% of Japanese citizens were vaccinated, it could help.
In a country with 126 million people, only about 18,000 doses have been administered, according to the Japanese government.
And they wonder why they have to lock down….AGAIN.