The health ministry and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government decided Monday to ask hospitals in the capital to secure beds for COVID-19 patients and accept as many of them as possible, as the current surge in infections is outstripping the capacity of the city’s medical system.
As the capital has been witnessing record daily coronavirus cases in recent weeks, health minister Norihisa Tamura and Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike held a meeting and decided to take stronger action regarding medical institutions by making the first such request to hospitals by the state under a revised infectious disease law.
Under the law revised in February, the ministry and Tokyo government can expose the names of hospitals that do not have a valid reason, such as lack of medical staff, for not complying with the request to secure beds.
“Infections driven by the delta variant are unlike anything we have seen before,” Tamura told reporters after the meeting. “I would like to ask for (the hospitals’) help to get through this difficult situation.”
To further relieve strain on hospitals in Tokyo, the metropolitan government on Monday started operating a facility that provides oxygen support to COVID-19 patients with relatively mild symptoms.
Tamura and Koike also decided to ask hospitals, universities with medical departments and nursing schools to dispatch staff to facilities such as the oxygen station.
The 24-hour oxygen station, set up by the metropolitan government in Shibuya Ward, has 130 beds and is staffed by three doctors and 25 nurses.
It is designed to treat patients who have been asked to recuperate at home but who experience concerns over breathing. Stays are likely to be short term, such as one or two nights.
Those who feel better after receiving oxygen support will be sent back home, while patients whose symptoms worsen will be considered for admission to a hospital.
As of Sunday, more than 39,000 patients in Tokyo were isolating at home or a facility other than a hospital, underscoring the urgent need to expand the support system in the capital.
Within the hospitals it runs, the metropolitan government plans to add another 110 beds where oxygen can be administered by the end of this month
Meanwhile, the central government is currently considering whether there is a need to expand a COVID-19 state of emergency to other areas beyond Tokyo and 12 other prefectures, government sources said.
The government’s top spokesman Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference Monday that the governors of Aichi, Gifu, Mie and Hokkaido prefectures have asked the central government to declare the emergency in their areas.
In Osaka Prefecture, which is also under the state of emergency, a site opened to provide AstraZeneca PLC’s COVID-19 vaccine at Shiromi Hall in the city of Osaka city. The prefecture has seen daily infections top 2,000 since Aug. 18, with the city accounting for some 40% of the cases.
The site, which has some 60 staffers, is aiming to inoculate 540 people per day. Registration for the shots began on Aug. 16, with slots already filled up until Aug. 29.
The health ministry approved the AstraZeneca vaccine in May, but the government initially opted against supplying doses, taking into consideration reports of rare cases of blood clots among young people overseas.
It began supplying the shot to prefectures most in need of additional doses, such as Tokyo and Osaka, earlier this month for use in people age 40 or older and those age 18 or above who cannot take the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines due to reasons such as allergic reactions. The two AstraZeneca doses are administered with a gap of eight weeks.
Hisato Takeuchi, 49, received an AstraZeneca shot in the morning. He said he felt more at risk from COVID-19 after one of his acquaintances recently became infected.
“I was not able to book my appointment for any other vaccine,” he said. “I thought there should be an opening slot for AstraZeneca (because of the reported concerns about side effects).”
The city government is planning to open another vaccination site at the Osaka City Air Terminal building from Aug. 30.
Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture also on Monday started administering AstraZeneca shots in principle to those age 40 or above. Reservation slots of 500 per day have been filled up for the entire week.
Japan’s inoculation rate still lags behind other advanced economies, with roughly 51 million people, or just over 40% of the population, having received two doses as of Monday.
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Source: The Japan Times
