Years of preparation to win an integrated resort license (IR), with potentially several more years left to plan and build a resort, aren’t about to be put on hold for a simple national emergency. Yokohama mayor Fumiko Hayashi has declared the city will push ahead with its bid with no delay.

“We will not review the schedule for the IR bid during the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak,” Hayashi said at a press briefing. These comments came shortly after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a national emergency in Japan.

Seeing as Abe hasn’t also declared a suspension to the application process, Hayashi said Yokohama would simply have to press on. “The government says it will not change the period of January to July of next year [for the applications],” he said. “As a city, we are now moving toward a decision, and we cannot move the schedule because we need to meet the country’s schedule. We cannot stop now.”

Yokohama is just in the process of ramping up for its bid. At the end of March, the city expanded their IR promotion office, hiring an additional 14 staff. Freezing their efforts now would make that ramp up a bit of a waste.