What appears to be a fourth wave of COVID-19 is materializing in Japan mere weeks after the country began easing virus countermeasures.
There were concerns that beginning to lift the state of emergency in early February in the nation’s most populated regions would trigger a viral rebound, but perhaps not so soon or in so many parts of the country.
The resurgence is most pronounced where the order was lifted in early February, which implies the unsettling possibility that in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area — where the declaration was ended weeks later on March 22 — a delayed uptick is quickly approaching.
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