菅首相、解除可否「言える状況でない」　緊急事態宣言

　菅義偉首相は１５日の参院予算委員会で、新型コロナウイルス対策として首都圏４都県に発令している緊急事態宣言の解除の可否について「専門家の意見も聞きながら最終的に判断したい。今、延長するとかどうとかと言えるような状況ではない」と述べた。立憲民主党の福山哲郎氏への答弁。
　宣言の期限は２１日。政府は１８日にも専門家らによる基本的対処方針等諮問委員会や対策本部を開いて宣言を解除するか判断する。（2021/03/15-12:16）

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga suggested Monday that it is not the time yet to decide whether to lift the government's second state of emergency over the novel coronavirus epidemic, in place for the greater Tokyo area.
   "We'll make a decision while hearing experts' opinions," Suga told a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament. "We're still not in a situation where we can say whether we should extend the emergency (or lift it)," he said, in response to a question from Tetsuro Fukuyama of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
   The state of emergency for Tokyo and neighboring Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures is set to run until Sunday.
   The government is expected to make a decision on the matter by holding meetings of its COVID-19 advisory panel of experts and its coronavirus response headquarters as early as Thursday.
   Shigeru Omi, head of a government task force on the epidemic, told the Upper House Budget Committee meeting that the government "should refrain from making a decision (on whether to lift or extend the virus emergency) without carrying out a thorough examination" on why new infection cases in the metropolitan area have stopped decreasing and started increasing slightly.