A major annual firework festival in Tokyo will be held this summer for the first time in four years after the display was repeatedly canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event’s organizer said Tuesday.
The Sumida River Fireworks Festival, considered a mainstay summer event in the Japanese capital, is slated to be held on July 29. The festival was greenlit ahead of the government’s decision to downgrade COVID-19 as a common disease next month.
“We would like people to be able to relax and have fun at the event for the first time in four years,” a spokesperson said.
Around 20,000 fireworks will be set off, with the display expected to attract about 950,000 people, according to the organizer.
Restrictions for events will be scrapped when the government downgrades the legal status of COVID-19 to Class 5, or the same category as seasonal influenza, on May 8.
The disease is currently designated as a special category equivalent to or stricter than Class 2, which covers infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, under the law.
The organizer said it will adhere to government policy in preventing the spread of infection.
Meanwhile Japan on Tuesday confirmed 10,219 new COVID-19 cases, an increase of about 500 from a week before.
Thirty-two deaths linked to COVID-19 were newly reported across the country, while the number of severe cases rose by four from Monday to 62.
In Tokyo, 1,490 new cases were confirmed, a rise of 133 from a week earlier. Four new deaths were reported, while the number of severe cases rose by two from Monday to five.
Among other prefectures in Japan, new cases totaled 785 in Osaka, 717 in Kanagawa, 663 in Hokkaido and 541 in Aichi.
