A survey commissioned by Japanese broadcaster NHK revealed that more than half of the Japanese population, 57 percent, voted for the renewal of COVID-19 restrictions in the face of an increasing number of infections.

Last week, the Japanese government declared the start of the 7th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Among those polled, 22% were unequivocally in favor of new restrictions, 35% agreed to the renewal of restrictions to some extent, 13% were adamantly opposed to new measures, and 24% were opposed to restrictions to some extent.
 
The survey was conducted among 1,216 Japanese people between July 16 and July 18.
 
Since last week, the number of daily infections in the United States has surpassed 100,000, with 17,790 new coronavirus cases confirmed on Sunday, 12,696 cases confirmed on Monday, and 11,018 new infections confirmed on Tuesday.

Japan recorded 110,675 COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours on Saturday, the highest daily increase since February 5.

On the other hand, China was able to put an end to all infections with a package of targeted lockdowns, mass testing, and long quarantine periods.      

Beijing closed its schools and businesses for weeks and Shanghai was forced to have a painful 2-month long lockdown due to the fast-spreading Omicron variant this spring; however, with infections slowing to a trickle recently, Shanghai reported zero locally transmitted cases in June for the first time since before the outbreak in March.

"There were no new domestic Covid-19 confirmed cases and no new domestic asymptomatic infections in Shanghai," the city said in a statement.