Tokyo, Feb 3 (IANS) Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga extended the state of emergency over the Covid-19 pandemic in struggling regions for one month to March 7.

With 2,324 new infections reported nationwide as of 8:20 p.m. local time on Tuesday, bringing the nation's cumulative total of cases to 394,799 and death toll to 5,965 people, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The Tokyo metropolitan government, meanwhile, reported 556 new infections on Tuesday, with the number of new daily cases marking the fifth straight day that infections have dipped below the 1,000-mark.

--IANS int/rs