TOKYO – As Japan faces a new wave of coronavirus infections and the government prepares for emergencies, medical staff say there is a shortage of beds and an increase in cases related to hospitals collapsing Tokyo’s medical system Is pushing on the verge of

The crisis has already come to the Eiju General Hospital, a pink, 10-story building in central Tokyo, with 140 cases of COVID-19 reported in the past two weeks. Among them, there are at least 44 doctors, nurses, and other medical staff.

On a recent weekday, Eiju General’s glass doors were filled with posters stating that the hospital was closed until further notice.

More than 60 patients with the virus are still being treated inside. According to health officials in Tokyo’s Taito ward, a person who was transferred to another hospital infected others.

Japan has a small proportion of the number of cases reported by its neighboring countries China and South Korea. Similar scenarios are still playing out of Eiju General Tokyo, as a dozen doctors and nurses in the city told Reuters that there was a shortage of gear and staff even as infections grew.

“We can evacuate an entire ward and use it just for patients in Corona, but that means those patients (with other diseases) will have to go elsewhere,” one from the greater Tokyo area The specialist doctor for infectious diseases at the major hospital said. “If we cannot do this, it will give rise to the virus spreading in the hospital and demolish our medical system.”

Official data tell a similar story. The Government of Tokyo stated that as of Sunday, 951 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized; In a live YouTube address on Sunday night, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said that around 1,000 beds were allocated for coronavirus patients in the city.

Even other countries have closed borders and stopped testing, with Japan’s side seen as the kind of large-scale infection seen elsewhere – some experts say most The reasons for the lack of testing were. In the early stages of the epidemic, Japan also had to weigh whether to postpone the Summer Olympics, a decision that eventually came in late March.

Since mid-January, Japan has tested 39,446 people, while the United Kingdom has taken 173,784 and South Korea has done 443,273 tests, according to Oxford University data.

Authorities have tried to test and track Japan’s way of escaping hospitals, with Hitoshi Oshitani, an infectious disease specialist on the government panel, shaping the country’s coronavirus policy.

Despite this, the total number of nationwide positive cases doubled to 3,654 in the last seven days. Tokyo is now the largest COVID-19 hub in Japan, with more than 1,000 confirmed cases.

As cases progress, officials said, some people who test positive have to wait at home or in the outskirts of hospitals until beds are available. Koike said on Sunday that to ease the burden on medical staff, Tokyo will relocate people with mild symptoms to hotels and other locations starting on Tuesday.

Hiroshi Nishira, a professor at Hokkaido University and a panel member advising the government on the coronavirus response, said that like many Tokyo hospitals, the Eiju General has no infectious diseases department. This means that coronavirus patients were initially treated by all, allowing the virus to spread.

“We haven’t been able to explicitly include fingering since the first wave,” Nishura said referring to the Eiju General. A spokesperson for the hospital declined to comment on Monday.

On Friday, another hospital in Tokyo said three nurses and a doctor became infected while treating patients. The next day, Tokyo saw its daily coronavirus cases in the top 100 for the first time, and 143 people tested positive on Sunday.

A representative of the Tokyo government said on Monday that “the medical system remains safe,” adding that Tokyo was urging residents to avoid all unnecessary outings.

Comprehensive for BEDS

The city of about 14 million people is a huge risk in dense Tokyo. Japan also has the oldest population in the world, with about a third of the country – 36 million people – over 65 years of age.

According to Japan’s Ministry of Health, there are about 1.5 million hospital beds nationwide, but beds in negative-pressure rooms reserved for infectious diseases, excluding tuberculosis, have been reduced to only 1,882, just 145 in Tokyo.

Although people with COVID-19 do not require all such rooms, they should be kept separate from other patients.

In recent times, Tokyo officials have been scrambling to secure 4,000 beds for coronavirus patients, asking hospitals to free up space in ordinary wards and even offer financial incentives. He refused to change the name as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“There is not much capacity (of hospital beds) left in Tokyo, so (medical collapse) is no longer unexpected,” said Santoshi Kamayachi, an executive board member of the Japan Medical Association. State of emergency. “The number of patients is clearly increasing, so the situation is becoming more urgent.”

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Even after Japan extinguished the fire for how patients handled the cruise ship Diamond Princess, it was little to complete testing and preparations, some critics say.

Tokyo assemblyman Akihiro Suzuki wrote to Koike on January 31, asking him to establish a medical and counseling system for coronavirus cases.

“The response was slow and still slow,” he said. Suzuki has since submitted 10 requests, seeking a range of measures, ranging from purchasing more ventilators to clarifying Tokyo’s policy for treating serious patients.

A representative of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said “specific medical measures” were being prepared from March 23 to address a possible increase in cases in the city, including acquiring more beds.

Half a dozen nurses working in clinics and mid-size Tokyo hospitals said they were told to reuse masks and worry about having enough staff to deal with a surge. Many doctors said that they were told not to discuss the capacity of their hospitals with the media.

The nurses told Reuters that they were not sure their hospitals had adequate personal protective equipment such as N95 masks and plastic gowns.

“The other day I saw a news report that a nurse wearing a garbage bag as protective gear died in New York and wondered if I would do so in the future,” 30 nurses told Reuters. Like many other medical workers, she did not mention the name as she is not allowed to talk to the media.

Kasumi Matsuda, who works for the Japan Federation of Medical Workers Unions and was a nurse for 13 years, said many of its 170,000 members had also reported a lack of protective gear.

“I think the system is already starting to fall apart,” she said.

As the number of cases in Tokyo is increasing, the Japan Medical Association and Tokyo Governor Koike have asked the central government to quickly declare a state of emergency to reduce the rate of infection.

Such a declaration empowers governors to shut down public facilities and “name and shame” that deny official requests. But it cannot force companies to comply.

Media reports indicated on Monday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was preparing to declare a state of emergency this week, saying such a decision would be premature after days.

On Friday, a nonprofit organization that provides developmental support overseas said it would build a temporary hospital with 1,200 beds by the end of April in a Bayside shopping district in Tokyo.

The beds will be installed under tents in the parking lot of the Museum of Marine Science, a building the size of a docked ship.