TOKYO, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday reported 678 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours in the Japanese capital.

The latest figure marked a new record for a single-day tally in Tokyo, surpassing the previous record of 621 coronavirus infections reported last Saturday.

Due to the surge in coronavirus cases in Japan and especially in urban areas recently, the government said on Monday that it will suspend the "Go To Travel" campaign during the upcoming holiday period and that Tokyo will be excluded from the subsidized tourism program beginning Friday due to high numbers of COVID-19 cases.

Subsidized trips to Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture were also halted, similarly owing to disproportionately high infection rates of the pneumonia-carrying virus.

Tokyo, the hardest hit by COVID-19 among all Japan's 47 prefectures, has now seen its cumulative total of infections rise to 48,668, according to preliminary figures for Wednesday.

This compares to the nationwide total reported on the previous day of close to 185,000 cases.