Osaka Kyobashi Live House Arc is seen in Miyakojima Ward, Osaka, on Feb. 29, 2020. (Mainichi/Naohiro Yamada)

OSAKA -- Three women in western Japan were announced on March 3 to be the latest people confirmed infected with the coronavirus after going to a live venue in the city of Osaka, as the local government scrambles to track down and test everyone who attended.

With the reports that the three had been infected after going to Osaka Kyobashi Live House Arc in the city of Osaka, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare dispatched its "cluster response team" comprised of infectious disease experts to the area, and detailed investigations are going ahead.

The three people newly revealed to have the virus are a woman in her 40s living in Osaka Prefecture, another woman in her 40s residing in the city of Kobe, and a woman in her 50s from the city of Kyoto.

The women from Osaka Prefecture and Kobe were at the venue on Feb. 15, while the woman from Kyoto was there on both Feb. 15 and 16. Additionally, a man in his 50s from Osaka Prefecture and a man in his 40s from Kobe have also been revealed to be infected with the virus.

According to the Osaka Prefectural Government and others, a total of eight people who were connected to performances at the venue or who were in the audience over Feb. 15 and 16 have been confirmed to have the coronavirus. Over the two days of shows, it appears that over 200 people were in the building, and the prefectural government intends to examine everyone who was there.

But there are many people who it has not been able to get in touch with, prompting Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura to make a call out to those involved on March 3, "We ask please for those who were there (at Osaka Kyobashi Live House Arc) to get in touch with nearby public health centers."

(Japanese original by Toru Tsukui, Osaka City News Department)