Japan cuts 100,000 tulips to deter Sakura park visitors

Thursday, April 23, 2020

The flower lovers in Japan will have to wait until next year to tip-toe through the tulips after a park razed more than 100,000 stems to comply with social distancing rules to help control the coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak.

The officials in the city of Sakura, 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Tokyo, mowed the tulip beds at “Sakura Furusato Hiroba” and canceled an annual tulip festival to discourage people from congregating after a coronavirus emergency was declared last week.

Sakiho Kusano, a city tourism official said that many visitors came on the weekend when the flowers were in full bloom. It became a mass gathering so we had no choice but to make the decision to cut the flowers. Japan’s tally of coronavirus infections stood at 11,500 on Wednesday.

Despite the absence of the pink and red flowers that usually carpet the 7,000-square-meter tulip gardens at this time of year, the park is drawing a smattering of visitors.

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