Japan asks Tokyo hospitals to accept more COVID-19 patients

On Aug 23, 2021

The Japanese government called on Tokyo hospitals in the capital to accept more patients with COVID-19, as rising infections make it increasingly difficult to Health care access.

Health Minister, Norihisa Tamura said, “The high contagiousness of the Delta variant is simply not comparable to previous ones.

“We would like to have more support from the medical community to secure hospital beds for coronavirus patients.”

Fewer than one in 10 coronavirus patients are hospitalized in Tokyo.

According to the health Minister, this was the first time the national government had issued such a request based on the infectious diseases control law.

With infections showing no sign of slowing down, the government is considering expanding areas covered by state of emergency measures, Emergency measures are now in force in 13 prefectures, including Tokyo.

However, infection numbers in Japan have been setting daily records, the number of deaths per day has stayed at less than a quarter of the record 216 fatalities seen on May 18, as more people are vaccinated.

Kamila/Reuters