The Japanese prime minister has today ordered the closure of all schools in the country for a month in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Shinzo Abe said: ‘The government considers the health and safety of children above anything else.
‘We request all primary, junior high and high schools… across the nation to close temporarily from March 2 next week until their spring break.’
More than 200 people in Japan have so far contracted the virus and four people have died.
On the main northern island of Hokkaido, 13 new cases, including two children under the age of 10, were confirmed, the public broadcaster NHK reported.
Officials in Osaka had already ordered the closure of all schools in the city for a fortnight and 1,600 schools in Hokkaido were also set to close.
The move came after a woman in Osaka, which has a population of 2.6million, tested positive for the virus for a second time, which is thought to be the first time this has happened.
The 40-year-old caught the virus while working on a tour bus in Osaka with visitors from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, in January.
She was discharged from hospital after testing negative on February 6 but fell ill again and was diagnosed with the virus for the second time on Wednesday.
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At least 186 people in Japan have so far contracted the virus and four people have died.
Almost 700 people have been diagnosed with the virus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined off Japan, including passengers who were allowed to leave the boat after testing negative, with 45 now showing symptoms.
Around 1,600 schools on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido were already set to close after an 80-year-old man with heart and lung diseases died from the virus, Governor Naomichi Suzuki announced on Thursday.
The governor requested that schools close for about a week.
An Osaka city official said the municipal government was holding a meeting late afternoon on Thursday to discuss measures concerning the virus in the city, which is about 250 miles west of the capital Tokyo.
Japan said on Thursday that preparations for a rare state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping planned for April were going ahead, even as it called for sports and cultural events to be scaled down to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
