Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump on Friday agreed to cooperate closely on measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including the development of drugs and vaccines, Japan’s top government spokesperson said.
Abe and Trump held talks by phone for about 45 minutes from around 10:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
“Two leaders exchanged views on each country’s COVID-19 situation, steps to prevent further spread of the virus,development of medicine and vaccines and measures for reopening the economies,” Suga told a regular news conference. “They agreed to continue their tight cooperation.”
Meanwhile, more Japanese prefectures were reporting zero coronavirus cases on a daily basis, and lifting the state of emergency for those regions was within sight, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Friday.
Nishimura, who is also in charge of the government’s overall coronavirus response, added that he still wanted people to try to reduce person-to-person contact by 80%.
Japan this week extended the nationwide state of emergency to the end of May but said it would reassess the situation on May 14 and possibly lift the measures earlier for some prefectures.
