Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to adopt an unprecedented package of measures to support the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The government program will be ready in 10 days, he added.

Shinzo Abe said that Japan is near an emergency against the background of the spread of the virus.

According to the Prime Minister, the government is preparing measures that are much larger than what has been undertaken in response to the global financial crisis of 2008.

“Japan is barely behaving and it would not be strange if the spread of the virus increased dramatically”, said Shinzo Abe during a news conference broadcast on national television. For the time being, however, he has refrained from declaring a state of emergency.

Earlier today, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike asked the central government to provide assistance because of the rise of the infected, the capital is on the verge.

The number of current coronavirus-infected people in Japan has already exceeded 1,600 and the death toll is 52.

Earlier this week, Abe described the spread of the virus as a “national crisis”.

According to experts, the actual number of infected in Japan is much higher, as authorities fail to track all contacts in more than half of the cases identified.