TOKYO >> Japan asked the United States today to impose lockdowns on its military bases in the country as it tries to stanch a rapid climb in COVID infections linked in part to outbreaks among American service members.

While Japan has not yet seen the kind of explosion in cases experienced by other countries grappling with the omicron variant of the coronavirus, daily case numbers passed 2,600 on Wednesday after remaining in the low hundreds through late December.

“The government of Japan is deeply concerned about the spread of infections on Japanese and American military facilities and in the surrounding areas,” the chief Cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, told reporters.

Japan’s foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, made the lockdown request to his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a phone call to discuss diplomatic issues, Matsuno said. It was unclear what steps the United States would take.

The spread of the virus on American military bases in Japan has outpaced that in the country at large, and local authorities have linked outbreaks in their communities to contact among residents and U.S. personnel.

Japan has largely closed its borders to foreigners since the beginning of the pandemic, and it further tightened restrictions soon after the first cases of omicron were identified in southern Africa in November. Travelers to Japan must present a negative COVID test before departure.

But American service members have been allowed to enter the country without testing, Matsuno told reporters in late December. The requirement was waived under the status of forces agreement that governs the large U.S. military presence in the country.

Today, the governor of Okinawa said he would ask the government to help prepare the prefecture to go onto an emergency footing as daily case counts approach 1,000. Cases there have increased significantly after an outbreak at one of the island’s American military bases.

Another outbreak has been linked to the Marine Corps base in Iwakuni, southwest of Hiroshima. In response, local officials asked the facility to restrict the movement of its personnel in an effort to stem the transmission.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.