Japan's health ministry says coronavirus case counts are continuing to rise nationwide with some western regions seeing larger week-on-week increases.

The ministry says that about 5,000 medical institutions across Japan reported 45,108 cases in the seven-day period through July 9. That figure is up 9,361 from the week before.

The average number of patients per institution was 9.14, up 26 percent from the previous week. This is the 14th straight week-on-week increase.

By prefecture, Okinawa has the highest average number of patients at 41.67 per institution. It is followed by Kagoshima with 17.18 and Miyazaki with 16. The average number of patients increased in 45 of the country's 47 prefectures.

The ministry says 6,096 people were newly hospitalized. That is an increase of 602 from the previous week.

Government officials say that the number of COVID-19 cases are slowly rising nationwide with some prefectures in the western regions of Kyushu, Chugoku and Shikoku seeing larger week-on-week increases.

They say that the number of patients in Okinawa has declined week-on-week, but it is still at a high level.

The officials say that they will continue to closely monitor the situation nationwide.

July 8 marked two months since the Japanese government downgraded COVID-19 to the same category as seasonal influenza.

The number of COVID cases for the week through July 9 was 3.48 times more than the figure for the week through May 14 just after the downgrading.