People line up to access a coronavirus PCR testing center on April 23, 2021 in Osaka, Japan.
Bouddhika Weerasinghe | Getty Images
Japan will focus on hospitalizing critically ill patients with Covid-19 and those at risk of becoming so while others self-isolate at home, officials said, amid concerns over a strained medical system then as cases increase in the host city of the Tokyo Olympics.
The country has seen a sharp increase in coronavirus cases and records more than 10,000 new infections per day across the country. Tokyo recorded a record 4,058 on Saturday.
Fewer older people, most of whom are vaccinated, are infected, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.
“On the other hand, infections among young people are on the increase and people in their 40s and 50s with severe symptoms are on the increase,” he said. “As people are also admitted to the hospital with heat stroke, some people cannot be admitted immediately and are recovering at home.”
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, announcing the change on Monday, said the government will ensure that those isolated at home can be hospitalized if necessary.
The previous policy had emphasized the hospitalization of a larger category of high-risk patients.
Some fear the change will cause more deaths, and the opposition leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yukio Edano, has lambasted the change.
“They call it home treatment but it’s actually home abandonment,†he told NHK public television.
Japan on Monday extended its state of emergency to three prefectures near Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka. An existing emergency in Tokyo – its fourth since the start of the pandemic – and Okinawa is now expected to last until August 31.
The country avoided a devastating outbreak of the virus, with around 932,000 total cases and just over 15,000 deaths on Sunday.
But it now struggles to contain the highly transmissible delta variant even as the public grows weary of mostly voluntary limits on their activities and delays in rolling out vaccination.
Slightly less than 30% of the population is fully vaccinated, including three quarters of those 65 and over.
Nearly 70% of hospital beds for critically ill Covid-19 patients were occupied on Sunday, according to data from Tokyo.
According to Department of Health guidelines, critically ill patients are defined as those requiring admission to intensive care units (ICUs) or life support.
The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said 12,000 patients were isolating themselves at home, a 12-fold increase in the past month.
Suga and the organizers of the Olympics say there is no connection between July 23 and August 23. 8 Summer Games and the sharp increase in cases. Medical experts, however, said holding the Olympics sends a confusing message about the need to stay home, contributing to the increase.
Unlike voluntary restrictions and low vaccination rates elsewhere in Japan, more than 80% of the residents of Tokyo’s Olympic Village for athletes and coaches are vaccinated, testing is mandatory, and travel is limited.
Organizers on Tuesday announced 18 new cases of Covid-19 linked to the Games, bringing the total since July 1 to 294.
