TOKYO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Japan logged 249,830 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, posting a record high amid concerns over the overburdened medical system due to the quickly surging number.

It was the second consecutive day that the country reported over 200,000 new cases, with the previous record hitting 233,000 cases on Thursday last week in Japan's seventh wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tokyo reported 38,940 new cases, while Osaka Prefecture logged 24,038 cases.

Hyogo Prefecture, which posted 11,201 cases, and Aichi Prefecture, with 17,778 new cases, were among the 24 areas reporting record infections Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the country's daily death toll amounted to 169.

Japan saw the world's highest number of new COVID-19 cases in the week to July 24 with more than 969,000 infections, according to the World Health Organization.

The Japanese government has recently announced its decision to allow local governments from the country's 47 prefectures to issue declarations to tackle the spread of the highly transmissible BA.5 Omicron subvariant.

The central government said it will deploy officials to prefectures to oversee precautionary measures and act as liaison officers. Enditem

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