TOKYO, April 20. /TASS/. In the past 24 hours, 23 coronavirus patients died in Japan, becoming the record-high daily fatality count since the coronavirus statistics was established, Kyodo news agency reported.

The total fatality count in Japan has reached 274. In the past 24 hours, 345 new cases were registered, including 102 in Tokyo. The total case tally, including the passengers and the crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, has reached 11,864.

Tokyo continues to register the majority of cases (3,182), followed by Osaka (1,296) and Kanagawa (799) prefectures.

Earlier, Japanese TV reported that the infection spread had slowed: Sunday saw 369 new cases, while on Saturday, the number was 584.

Since April 8, Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, as well as Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures, introduced a state of emergency, announced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. On April 16, the prime minister declared the state of emergency across the entire country, effective until May 6. These measures seek to decrease the number of contacts between people by 80% and to prevent trips across the country during the holiday season in late April - early May.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,414,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 165,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 629,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 47,121 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 3,446 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 405 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.