The health care system remains overloaded but signs of hope are emerging thanks to a dropoff in COVID-19 cases and public compliance with emergency stay-home requests, medical experts helping the government's coronavirus panel say.

The panel said on Friday that the medical system remains under significant strain in certain prefectures and steps must be taken to prevent a full-scale collapse.

Although coronavirus cases have declined overall in the past few weeks, how much that trend can ease the burden on hospitals is likely to be limited, the panel concluded.