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New-look Manila Chooks TM to compete at 3×3 World Tour in Doha, Qatar

WITH its former players deciding to take their basketball journeys to a new direction, Manila Chooks TM has turned to new faces to banner its 3×3 campaign this season, beginning with the 3×3 World Tour in Doha, Qatar.

Chico Lanete, Mac Tallo, Zachy Huang, and Dennis Santos now compose the revamped Manila Chooks TM squad, taking the place of the likes of Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol, who have taken their talents to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Coaching the new team is champion National Collegiate Athletic Association and University Athletic Association of the Philippines coach Aldin Ayo.

First for Manila Chooks TM in 2021 is the 3×3 World Tour happening from March 26 to 27.

Mr. Ayo said that since the team is a new one, they are expecting some early bumps but something they are willing to deal with and build on.

“We are starting, but I believe that we are starting on the right foot. We are establishing a new culture and new approach. Hopefully, the players respond to that,” said Mr. Ayo in a statement of what they are trying to accomplish.

Mr. Lanete, 41, is the veteran among the players. He played in the PBA for more than a decade and is a three-time league champion.

He debuted in 3×3 play just last year and instantly impressed in the local circuit.

Mr. Tallo also had PBA experience while 6-foot-4 Huang is a former player of Mr. Ayo with the University Santo Tomas Growling Tigers. Mr. Santos, for his part, is a 6-foot-5 stretch big.

In the World Tour, Manila Chooks TM will have to go through the qualifying draw with host Doha and Austria’s Graz before it can make it to the main draw.

Already seeded are top teams Liman of Serbia, Riga of Latvia, Ub of Serbia, NY Harlem of USA, Princeton of USA, Novi Sad of Serbia, Amsterdam Talent&Pro of the Netherlands, Piran of Slovenia, Šakiai Gulbelė of Lithuania, Edmonton of Canada, and Lusail of Qatar.

Prior to flying to Doha, however, the team must first get clearance from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, especially in light of heightened restrictions brought about by the recent spike in coronavirus cases in the country. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Team Lakay’s Jenelyn Olsim makes ONE main roster debut

ANOTHER Team Lakay member is set to make her ONE Championship main roster debut as women’s strawweight Jenelyn Olsim takes the Circle at “ONE: Fists of Fury III” on Friday in Singapore.

A product of the ONE Warrior Series, Ms. Olsim (3-2) looks to get her jacked-up mixed martial arts push to a good start in her three-round collision with Brazilian Maira Mazar (7-3), the number five-ranked fighter in the division.

Ms. Olsim is the latest female fighter to represent Baguio-based Team Lakay in ONE, joining atomweights Gina Iniong and April Osenio.

She said that being part of a respected team much is expected of her, something she vowed to live up to.

“It’s my first time on the big stage, and I feel both excited and nervous. I’ve worked with Team Lakay for a while now, and since joining the team, everything has changed for me,” Ms. Olsim said in the lead-up to her main roster debut.

“Getting a belt isn’t on my mind right now, but definitely something I want in the future. For now, I just want to be the best I can be. I’m working on that,” she added.

For the fight, Ms. Olsim is grateful for the support and lessons her teammates like veteran and former lightweight champion Eduard Folayang and reigning strawweight world champ Joshua Pacio as well as coach Mark Sangiao were giving her.

“I’m very fortunate to be working with a team that will help me perform at my best on that big stage. I’ve learned a lot from everyone, not just in sharpening my technique, but also the kind of work ethic required to make it to the top. There’s a level of professionalism in training with Team Lakay, and a champion’s mind-set,” said Ms. Olsim, who last fought in August of 2019 at ONE Warrior Series 7.

Adding, “In Team Lakay, champions are not born, they are made. I’ve seen how iron sharpens iron, and how we can work together to improve our skills. It’s a privilege for me to train under my very experienced brothers and learn from them. They’ve reached the top already, so there’s a lot I can learn.”

Waiting for Ms. Olsim, is Ms. Mazar, who is out to win back-to-back fights after a triumph in her last fight in November.

Headlining Fists of Fury III, the last installment of the fight series, is the lightweight kickboxing world championship between reigning champion Regian Eersel of Suriname and challenger Mustapha Haida of Italy.

Co-headlining is the atomweight muay thai battle of Australian Alma Juniku and American Janet Todd, who incidentally is the ONE women’s kickboxing champion.

Also seeing action is former strawweight champion Alex Silva of Brazil versus Hiroba Minowa of Japan.

ONE: Fists of Fury III will be shown on One Sports and One Sports+ at 8:30 p.m. and on March 21 at 12 a.m. on TV5. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

OKC Thunder trade Trevor Ariza to Miami Heat for Meyers Leonard

THE Miami Heat traded embattled center Meyers Leonard and a future draft pick to the Oklahoma City (OKC) Thunder for journeyman forward Trevor Ariza on Wednesday.

Leonard waived his no-trade clause so the teams could consummate the deal. The Heat will also send a 2027 second-round pick and a trade exception to the Thunder.

Leonard, who is out for the season with a shoulder injury, was fined $50,000 last week for using an anti-Semitic slur during a video game livestream earlier this month.

“Meyers was a key part of our team that made a run to the NBA Finals and we will always be grateful for his contributions and leadership last season,” the Heat said in a statement. “His recent comments were very hurtful and disappointing, but we are encouraged that he has spent this last week meeting with community leaders, Rabbis and Holocaust survivors to greatly understand the impact of his words and we hope that his education will continue. We wish Meyers and (wife) Elle the best of luck in the future.”

Oklahoma City was Ariza’s 10th team after getting traded to the Thunder as part of a three-team deal in November. — Reuters

Chelsea march into Champions League quarters with win over Atletico

LONDON — Chelsea beat Atletico Madrid (2-0) on Wednesday to reach the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2014 as Hakim Ziyech and Emerson Palmieri were on target to give coach Thomas Tuchel’s rejuvenated team a 3-0 aggregate win.

Ziyech squeezed the ball under Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak in the 34th minute of the last-16 second leg as he connected with a cross from Timo Werner who had raced down the left after being fed by fellow German Kai Havertz.

The three players involved in the goal had come under pressure after falling short of expectations since they arrived as big-money signings at Stamford Bridge last summer.

Substitute Emerson made sure of the victory with a 94th-minute strike on the break for Chelsea’s second goal.

Atletico were left to rue referee Daniele Orsato’s decision not to give a penalty when, with the score at 0-0, Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta underhit a back pass and put his arm around Yannick Carrasco who went down in the box.

The leaders of Spain’s La Liga struggled to pierce Chelsea’s defence with the tireless N’Golo Kante providing extra protection from midfield.

Coach Diego Simeone hauled off Uruguay striker Luis Suarez in the 59th minute and replaced him with Angel Correa to little effect as he failed to repeat his feat of 2014 when he masterminded a Champions League semi-final win over the Blues.

The visitors finished the game with 10 men after Stefan Savić was shown a red card in the 82nd minute for elbowing Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger in the chest at a corner.

The win left Chelsea unbeaten in 13 games since Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard as coach in January. He has engineered a turnaround founded on a defense that has let in only two goals under the German, who led Paris St. Germain to last year’s final.

“This is another top performance with a deserved win,” Tuchel told BT Sport although he conceded he had been a “bit frightened” by the penalty scare.

“They tried to press up very high in the first half, but they opened up some spaces in the back of the midfield and we could exploit it and then scored a fantastic goal. It gave us a lot of confidence,” he said.

Simeone said Chelsea deserved the win. “The first game was more even, but today they were superior to us. We tried to press them high and make it hard for them to play out from the back and we managed that occasionally,” the Argentine said.

“I won’t look for excuses and whether or not it was a penalty. The referee made his decision. They were better than us and when your opponent is better you have to congratulate them.” — Reuters

Ruthless Bayern complete job against Lazio to ease into last eight

MUNICH — Holders Bayern Munich cruised through to the Champions League quarterfinals for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons after beating Lazio (2-1) at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday to secure a 6-2 aggregate victory.

Leading 4-1 from the first leg in Rome, Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring for Bayern from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute, his 39th goal of the season in all competitions, to virtually end Lazio’s hopes.

The German champions took their foot off the gas before substitute Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, having replaced Lewandowski, added the second goal in the 73rd minute. Marco Parolo headed a late consolation for Lazio.

Bayern joined fellow German side Borussia Dortmund in the last eight and Lazio’s exit means no Italian team will compete in the Champions League quarterfinals, with Juventus and Atalanta having also gone out at the last-16 stage.

“It was important for me that we won the game,” Bayern coach Hansi Flick said. “Lazio defended well, but I think the win was deserved.

“Our attack is so strong and we play a high-risk game. It’s important that we keep playing like this and defend from the front to put our opponents under pressure.”

Alexander Nuebel replaced the ill Manuel Neuer in goal for Bayern, but with Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi surprisingly leaving the club’s top scorer Ciro Immobile out, the stand-in keeper was rarely rested.

Although Lazio were facing a near impossible task — no side in European Cup history has progressed from a knockout tie after losing the first leg by three or more goals at home — Bayern named a strong starting side.

A clumsy challenge from Vedat Muriqi on Leon Goretzka gifted Bayern the penalty which Lewandowski converted, his fifth Champions League goal of the season, and the rest of match was a cruise for the Bundesliga leaders.

Lewandowski went within inches of his 40th of the season in the second half before being withdrawn and Choupo-Moting found the net two minutes after coming on, ensuring Bayern made it 19 games unbeaten in the Champions League.

Parolo did give Lazio something to take back to Italy in the 82nd minute when he headed home from Andreas Pereira’s free kick, but Bayern never looked in any danger of making a surprise exit.

“We did well, the boys were in the game then we conceded a goal from a penalty,” Inzaghi said. “We exit with honor after six matches unbeaten in the group.

“We were sorry for the first leg, but I think we played a good match here.” — Reuters

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 32 points leads Bucks past Sixers

GIANNIS Antetokounmpo had 32 points, 15 rebounds and five assists and the Milwaukee Bucks rallied from a 19-point deficit for a 109-105 overtime victory over the host Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.

Antetokounmpo scored 10 points in overtime, including a personal 7-0 run to seal the win.

Donte DiVincenzo added 20 points and eight rebounds, Jrue Holiday scored 19 points and Khris Middleton had 15 for the Bucks, who won their fifth in a row. Brook Lopez contributed 14.

Tobias Harris led the Sixers with 19 points and nine rebounds and Danny Green hit six 3-pointers for 18. Shake Milton added 15 and Dwight Howard had 13 points and 15 rebounds. Ben Simmons had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, while Furkan Korkmaz contributed 11 points and Seth Curry had 10.

The Sixers, who fell to 4-6 without injured All-Star Joel Embiid, had their six-game winning streak snapped.

The Bucks missed their first 10 shots of the second and soon trailed by 15, causing head coach Mike Budenholzer to call time out. Holiday finally broke the skid with a layup to close the Bucks within 35-22 with 6:26 remaining.

The Sixers led 45-31 at halftime thanks in large part to 10 points from Harris.

Milwaukee posted its second fewest points in any half in the last five years.

Philadelphia held a 74-65 advantage at the end of a chippy third, which included three technical fouls called, two on the Sixers.

Antetokounmpo converted a three-point play with 8:41 left to tie the game at 76. Antetokounmpo then grabbed a miss by DiVincenzo on the next possession and threw down a dunk for a two-point lead.

Curry appeared to injure his left ankle with 7:23 remaining and hobbled to the locker room.

Howard’s putback with 2:27 remaining gave the Sixers an 82-80 lead.

But DiVincenzo responded with a trey for an 83-82 Bucks advantage.

Lopez drained a 3-pointer and Holiday added a driving layup for an 88-84 lead with 1:13 to go.

The Sixers closed within 91-90 after Green’s corner trey with 10.8 seconds remaining.

Korkmaz’s trey with 0.4 seconds left tied the game at 93 and forced overtime. — Reuters

Bucks acquire Tucker

In spreading the welcome mat for P.J. Tucker yesterday, the Bucks completed a relatively lengthy process that began when the Rockets decided to park their erstwhile workhorse in favor of a complete rebuild early this month. True, his play had deteriorated of late; in fact, his numbers so far this season represent the lowest in his nine-year National Basketball Association career. On the other hand, there can be no questioning his grit; in fact, it’s precisely what has driven him to succeed against all odds after being selected in the second round of the 2006 draft, and what has enabled him to stay even-keeled in the face of his professional roller-coaster ride.

Certainly, the Bucks are confident Tucker’s depressed stats reflect his lack of motivation given his contract status. As early as in the offseason, he had shown his disappointment with the Rockets for their apparent unwillingness to, in his estimation, properly value his contributions. Apart from reporting late for training camp, he was, no doubt, also unnerved by James Harden’s holdout and subsequent departure. Sufficiently motivated, he — at least from the point of view of his new employers — looks to remain a valuable contributor to their championship aspirations.

The Bucks have reason for their optimism. After all, they’re right in the thick of things, having won 10 of their last 11 contests and crowding the Sixers and Nets at the top of the Eastern Conference. Contrast that with the woeful standing of the Rockets, who have lost 18 straight matches and are next to last in the West. Considering that Tucker will once again be casting moist eyes on a title ring from a much-closer vantage point, it’s clear that he will not be lacking in motivation. He may be an old 35 and bruised from years of burning rubber as an undersized center, but he remains resolute in the face of unique challenges.

In any case, Tucker will help in one particular area the Bucks are mediocre at best: employing switches critical to containing dynamic offenses. Following disappointing finishes in their last two postseason campaigns, head coach Mike Budenholzer finally got the drift and directed a pronounced increase in the frequency of their switching defenses. He’ll be a big boost in this regard, especially in tandem with reigning Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo. If there’s any question mark, it’s the swoon in his accuracy from behind the arc.

All things considered, though, Tucker should be a decided plus the Bucks. By all accounts, his veteran presence has been invariably welcome in the locker room and on the court, and he figures to exert the same influence in his new digs. The fact that they willingly gave up what remained of their draft assets in order to get him speaks volumes of their high regard for him. Little wonder, then, that they’re gung-ho. With due respect to Harden, he may yet prove to be the most impactful transfer from the Rockets to the East.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

Uber’s UK driver benefits highlight broader gig-worker challenges

LONDON — Uber’s proposal to expand benefits to British drivers following a court defeat last month has not put an end to the fight for better gig-worker pay in the UK and around the world, an issue that has become a flashpoint for the labor movement.

On Tuesday, Uber Technologies Inc. said it would offer guaranteed entitlements to its more than 70,000 UK drivers, including holiday pay, a pension plan, and limited minimum wage.

Uber has said it wants to expand limited benefits similar to those offered to drivers in the UK across all of Europe and the United States.

But British driver activists who brought the legal challenge said the proposal did not fully comply with the court ruling and vowed to keep up the pressure.

Uber shares were down 4.7% at $56.08 on Wednesday afternoon, with analysts at Morgan Stanley projecting a hit of up to $300 million to Uber’s core earnings to finance the added benefits.

Uber declined to comment on the total costs for implementing the measure.

The UK skirmish is the latest in a line of challenges over the rights of gig workers that could reshape the on-demand ride-hail and food delivery industry, in which most workers are considered independent contractors with few legal rights and benefits.

Worker groups, labor activists, and some legislators across Europe and the United States, including US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., have pushed for drivers to be recognized as employees instead, at times winning in court.

Uber, for many years staunchly opposed to changing workers’ independent contractor status, in recent years began to advocate for a new compromise model under the leadership of Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi. Under that proposal, gig workers would maintain their flexibility as independent contractors but be provided with additional benefits—a model that in many countries would require updates to existing labor laws.

The so-called third way model had its first success in California last year, when voters approved a gig company-sponsored ballot measure that cemented app workers’ contractor status with additional benefits. The company has offset at least some of those costs with fare increases.

Mr. Khosrowshahi in an op-ed in British newspaper the Evening Standard on Wednesday said the new UK framework was in line with the company’s US and European Union-wide advocacy for changes to existing labor laws, despite concrete benefits not necessarily serving as a blueprint for everywhere else.

The UK announcement follows a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court last month, which found that Uber drivers had to be classified as “workers”—a unique status available under UK employment law that situates drivers between independent contractors with no benefits and full-fledged employees with vast benefits.

‘BETTER OFF’
Uber said drivers will be at least 15% better off, if they opt in to the pension plan under the new scheme.

But James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, the two lead drivers in a 2016 employment tribunal case that Uber unsuccessfully contested all the way to Britain’s top court, said the company’s minimum wage proposal violated the court’s ruling.

Uber said minimum wage, which stands at 8.72 pounds ($12.13) per hour for those aged 25 and over, would apply only “after accepting a trip request and after expenses.” It also said that drivers on average earn an hourly 17 pounds in London.

Messrs. Farrar and Aslam said the decision to not pay drivers for the time they spend waiting for a passenger would short-change them “to the tune of 40–50%.” 

“We cannot accept anything less than full compliance with legal minimums,” the drivers said in a statement.

Cruising around while waiting for a trip accounts for as much as a third of the time drivers spend behind the wheel with the app turned on, according to several US studies.

Uber’s Northern and Eastern Europe boss, Jamie Heywood, in an interview with Sky News defended the firm’s plan and said the company would remain competitive on pricing.

“If we decided that logged-on time on the app was also working time, that would mean that we would need to introduce shifts telling drivers when they can work, which most drivers don’t want to do, and we’d also need to introduce exclusivity terms,” he told Sky News. — Costas Pitas and Tina Bellon/Reuters

China regulators held talks with Alibaba, Tencent, 9 others on ‘deepfake’ tech

BEIJING — Chinese regulators recently summoned 11 domestic technology companies including Alibaba Group, Tencent, and ByteDance for talks on use of “deepfake” technologies on their content platforms, stepping up scrutiny of the sector.

China’s cyberspace administrator said in a statement on Thursday that it and the public security ministry met with the companies to talk about “security assessments” and potential problems with deepfakes and audio social apps. Kuaishou Technology and Xiaomi Corp. also attended the meeting, it said.

All the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Deepfakes use artificial intelligence to create hyper-realistic but fake video or audio where a person appears to say or do something they did not.

China has increased scrutiny of its internet giants in recent months, citing concerns over monopolistic behavior and potential infringement of consumer rights.

Regulators also told the companies to “conduct security assessments on their own” and submit reports to the government when they plan to add new functions or new information services that “have the ability to mobilize society,” the statement said.

There has been a surge in China in copycats of the audio app Clubhouse since the US-based chat service was blocked in the country in early February.

Clubhouse was briefly accessible in China, attracting many users who participated in discussions on sensitive topics such as Xinjiang detention camps and Hong Kong independence, before it was shut down by authorities.

TikTok owner ByteDance is one of many companies working on Clubhouse-like apps for the Chinese market, Reuters reported earlier this month.

Other new offerings include Kuaishou’s invitation-based Feichuan app and Xiaomi’s reworking of Mi Talk app into an invitation-only audio service targeted at professionals. — Reuters

UN body raises global economic growth forecast for 2021 to 4.7%

GENEVA — The global economy is set to grow by 4.7% this year thanks to a stronger-than-expected recovery in the United States, a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Thursday, revising up its previous forecast of 4.3%.

The upwards revision from its previous forecast made last September factors in an expected boost in US consumer spending on the back of progress distributing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and a vast stimulus package, the report said.

“The global recovery that began in the third quarter of 2020 is expected to continue through 2021, albeit with a good deal of unevenness and unpredictability, reflecting epidemiological, policy and coordination uncertainties,” the report said.

Earlier this month, the OECD also revised higher its growth forecast for this year to 5.6 % from 4.2%.

However, the 22-page UNCTAD report called Out of the frying pan… into the fire? said COVID-19 will have lasting economic consequences that will require continued government support. It said the main risk to the global outlook is a “misguided return to austerity.”

The report estimates that last year there was a 3.9% drop in output as the spread of the coronavirus sparked lockdowns across the world.

It called the impact “exorbitant,” describing the “destruction of income on an unprecedented scale” with people in developing countries particularly hard hit.

Still, it says it would have been worse had central banks not taken preemptive action to avoid financial meltdown. Relief packages and a bounce-back in commodity prices, as well as the fast-tracking of vaccine development, also helped, the report said. — Reuters

Chile’s red-hot inoculation drive reaches frozen continent of Antarctica

SANTIAGO — Chile’s blazing fast vaccination program has reached the icy shores of Antarctica, officials and researchers told Reuters on Wednesday, bringing a sense of relief to one of the most isolated and vulnerable outposts on Earth.

The pandemic hit Antarctica in December, making it the last of the world’s continents to report an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Chilean health and army officials scrambled to clear out staff from a remote region with limited medical facilities.

Marcela Andrade, an official with the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), told Reuters by phone that air force personnel, followed by staff at the Profesor Julio Escudero research base, were inoculated on Sunday with vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

She said the outbreak scare several months ago was well-managed, but a reminder of the importance of speedy vaccination in such a remote and unforgiving location.

“It’s a relief,” said Ms. Andrade, who said workers in the isolated region were at special risk. “We don’t have flights or ships departing every day here. It’s complicated to transport people that (are ill) or a risk to others.”

The base is located on remote King George Island, the largest of the Shetland Islands off the coast of Antarctica. Researchers count as their nearest neighbors several species of seals, penguins, and fish-eating sea birds.

Chile has vaulted ahead of much of Latin America, and the world, in its vaccination program, and has inoculated most of its frontline health workers, military, and elderly. But a spike in contagions country-wide has brought hospitals to near collapse and forced new restrictions on movement. 

Ms. Andrade said Chile’s decision to vaccinate workers in Antarctica was much appreciated, and timely. She said a shift of workers was scheduled to leave for the mainland in mid-April, and would breathe easier with the vaccine in place.

“Looking at the situation in the country, and the world, it’s a total relief to get back to the mainland with a bit of protection,” she said. — Dave Sherwood/Reuters

Japan to lift Tokyo area state of emergency as planned on Sunday

TOKYO — The Japanese government’s advisory panel on coronavirus measures approved on Thursday a plan to let the state of emergency expire in the Tokyo area as scheduled on March 21, while the capital’s governor warned citizens not to let down their guard.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had flagged the move on Wednesday, saying the availability of hospital beds had improved in Tokyo and its three neighboring prefectures, where restrictions have remained since early January.

“There was no objection to the plan,” Economy Minister Yasuhisa Nishimura, who also heads Japan’s coronavirus response, said after a meeting with the advisory panel.

He added, however, that experts noted that infections had been creeping up in recent days, and that a resurgence was bound to occur.

While under pressure to bring coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) under control ahead of the Tokyo Olympics this summer, the government is eager to jumpstart economic activity in the Greater Tokyo area, whose 36 million residents account for 30% of Japan’s population.

The number of new COVID-19 cases has plunged from a peak in early January, when the third and most deadly wave of the pandemic swept the country. But the daily tally for Tokyo remains far from Governor Yuriko Koike’s target of reducing the seven-day average to 70% or lower than the preceding week.

On Wednesday, the capital reported 409 cases, compared with a peak of 2,520 on Jan. 7, but the highest since mid-February.

“(The state of emergency will be lifted) on the 21st, but does that mean anything goes after that? No, it doesn’t, and we have to see it as entering a new stage,” Mr. Koike told reporters.

“The first drop of vaccines for (Tokyo’s) 14 million has only just begun, and until we’re done, we have to fight with our bare hands,” she said.

While other parts of the country lifted the emergency status at the end of February, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama prefectures extended it, with officials saying they wanted to see a continued decline in infections and hospitalizations. 

Under the curbs, restaurants and bars are asked to close by 8 p.m and companies to allow more telecommuting.

After the lifting of the emergency, the four prefectures will ask eateries to close by 9 p.m., at least until the end of March, to reduce the chance of a resurgence in infections, Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa said on Wednesday.

The government’s task force will meet later on Thursday to finalize the plan, followed by a news conference by Prime Minister Suga at 7 p.m. (1000 GMT).

So far in Japan, roughly 449,000 people have tested positive and 8,715 have died from COVID-19 as of Wednesday. — Chang-Ran Kim/Reuters 

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