All national dailies wrote that the GOJ is planning to place an additional eight prefectures—Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Shizuoka, Aichi, Shiga, and Kumamoto—under a quasi-state of emergency to combat COVID-19 from Aug. 8 through 31. The GOJ will make a formal decision on the matter today after listening to the opinions of experts. Under the measure, eateries will be asked to close by 8:00 p.m. and not to serve alcohol. Some of these prefectures asked the central government this week to place them under a quasi-state of emergency in response to the rapid rise of infections.