Tokyo, Dec 11, 2020, SPA --The Japanese government's subcommittee on coronavirus countermeasures today, on Friday proposed a continued suspension of a domestic travel subsidy program in some parts of the country, where medical systems remain under strain due to a spike in infections, Kyodo reported. The subcommittee called for the government to strengthen its antivirus measures, such as requesting restaurants that serve alcohol shorten business hours in areas where the four-tier virus alert is one notch away from the highest level, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of Japan's virus response, told reporters after the group's meeting. Nishimura said the northern city of Sapporo and the city of Osaka in western Japan are likely to remain excluded from the "Go To Travel" campaign. The proposal comes a day after the country confirmed a record 2,973 daily infections, with a panel of medical experts advising the health ministry on virus response that the government's countermeasures have not been sufficiently effective at reducing the number of patients. The panel has also said cases have started to increase in areas that had been free of clusters, including Hiroshima, Kochi and Fukuoka prefectures, and urged the public to refrain from traveling during the year-end holidays. --SPA 00:28 LOCAL TIME 21:28 GMT 0020 www.spa.gov.sa/w1466079