Tokyo reported a record number of Covid cases for a second consecutive day, amid another wave of the pandemic, driven by the spread of the highly transmissible BA.5 omicron subvariant.

New cases hit 34,995 on Friday, jumping from 19,059 a week earlier. Hospital bed occupancy reached 44.7%.

As the number surges, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government will distribute antigen test kits free of charge, according to a Jiji report. The country will also shorten the quarantine period required for people who have been in close contact with those infected with Covid-19 to as short as 3 days, health minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters on Friday.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike announced that the capital would stop identifying close contacts at elementary schools and daycare centers.