Pedestrians wear face masks amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, in Tokyo on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Japan is stepping up efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus as the number of confirmed cases, including foreigners, has risen to more than 960, with over 700 of them stemming from the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in the port city of Yokohama.

Medical experts and government officials said small groups of infections, or clusters, have already appeared in the country. In the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, the governor declared a state of emergency last Friday and asked residents to remain indoors over the weekend after the number of confirmed cases has been rising every day.

Fearing that the epidemic could lead to shortages of daily items, some residents start stockpiling these days, causing drugstores and supermarkets in several cities to run short of toilet paper and other items.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last Saturday that his government will draft another emergency package by using reserve funds worth over 270 billion yen (2.5 billion US dollars) in around 10 days to help cushion the fallout from the spread of the epidemic.

Last Thursday, Abe said his government would request all elementary, junior and high schools in Japan to close from March 2 until the end of a spring break through early April.

"Above everything else, the health and safety of the children should be prioritised, and we should be prepared for the risk of large-scale infections due to many children and teachers gathering for long periods of time on a daily basis," he added.

Meanwhile, he ordered the government to "prepare necessary legislation to curb the spread of infections and minimize the impact on the lives of people as well as the economy."

The government has also pledged this summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will go ahead as scheduled.

The request came a day after Abe asked organizers of big sport and cultural events to consider cancelling or postponing them in the next two weeks.

"In view of large-scale transmission risks, we have decided to request (organizers) to cancel, postpone or hold sport and cultural events nationwide on a smaller scale than planned for the next two weeks nationwide," he said.

Earlier last week, the government adopted a basic policy to help curb the domestic spread of the novel coronavirus, with some of the measures aimed at ensuring enough medical facilities are available to deal with cases of newly infected people.

According to a government task force, the focus would be on preemptive measures to curb the virus' spread. There are small clusters, or sporadic cases of infections occurring in numerous parts of Japan, but that these do not, as yet, constitute a large scale epidemic.

Japan's health minister Katsunobu Kato said that the government was concerned that the clusters of infections, as they stand at the moment, will form into bigger clusters and lead to an expansion of the virus.

A government panel comprising medical experts has said that the next week or two would be "critical" in assessing the extent the virus has and could spread in Japan. They added that if a further spread of infections could be curbed or slowed down, then medical experts would have more time to better prepare to treat infected patients.