Tokyo, Feb 1 (IANS): The Japanese capital city of Tokyo logged nearly 40,000 new Covid-19 cases in January, marking a record that doubled the number of infections in the previous month, figures released by the metropolitan government revealed.

The data released on Sunday showed a significant increase in infections before Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared the country's second state of emergency in the capital and surrounding prefectures on January 7, asking people to avoid unnecessary outings and calling on restaurants and bars to shorten opening hours, reports Xinhua news agency.

The metropolitan government reported 633 new Covid-19 cases in the capital city on Sunday, bringing the total number in January to 39,664 and the cumulative figure to 99,841.

In December 2020, the capital logged a total of 19,245 confirmed cases.

Although the cases have gradually shown signs of abating under the state of emergency, the capital city's medical system remains overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, Suga has been criticized for the government's lack of effective measures to maintain a sound medical system as there were a number of infected patients who died at home since they could not be hospitalised.

Suga is set to extend the current state of emergency in currently place until February 7 in 11 of Japan's 47 prefectures by as much as one month, according to local media reports.

As of Monday morning, Japan has reported a total of 386,742 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 5,654 deaths.