Osaka seeks virus emergency after ongoing alert steps fail

Japan's western metropolis of Osaka has decided to ask the government to declare a state of emergency in the region after ongoing alert measures failed to control the spread of a more contagious coronavirus variant. Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura's decision to request a third state of emergency comes two weeks after a month of alert measures began in the prefecture and just 50 days after an earlier toothless state of emergency ended.