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 The call by JMA President Toshio Nakagawa followed Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga's announcement that only COVID-19 patients who are
seriously ill and those at risk of becoming so will be hospitalised,
while others isolate at home, a shift in policy some fear could
boost the death toll.
Japan has seen a sharp increase in coronavirus cases. Tokyo, which
had a record high of 4,058 new infections on Saturday, had another
3,709 new cases on Tuesday.
Tokyo hospitals are already feeling the crunch, Hironori Sagara,
director of Showa University Hospital, told Reuters.
"There are those being rejected repeatedly for admission," he said
in an interview. "In the midst of excitement over the Olympics, the
situation for medical personnel is very severe."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters fewer elderly
people, most already vaccinated, were getting infected.
"On the other hand, infections of younger people are increasing and
people in their 40s and 50s with severe symptoms are rising," he
said, adding some could not immediately get admitted to hospital.
Suga announced the change in hospital policy on Monday, saying the
government would ensure people isolating at home can be hospitalised
if necessary. Previous policy had focused on hospitalising a broader
category of patients.
Suga and Olympics organisers say there is no link between the July
23-Aug. 8 Summer Games and the sharp increase in cases.
Medical experts, however, have said holding the Olympics sent a
confusing message about the need to stay home, contributing to the
rise.
Unlike the voluntary restrictions and low vaccination rates
elsewhere in Japan, more than 80% of the people in the Olympic
village in Tokyo for athletes and coaches are vaccinated, testing is
compulsory and movement is curtailed.
Organisers on Tuesday announced 18 new Games-related COVID-19 cases,
bringing the total since July 1 to 294.
'IN-HOME ABANDONMENT'
On Tuesday, Suga, meeting with heads of national medical groups,
vowed to "protect people's lives".
"The spreading infections on a nationwide scale are approaching our
biggest crisis since last year's first wave," Nakagawa said.
Some worry the hospital policy shift could lead to more deaths.
[to top of second column] |
 "They call it in-home treatment
but it's actually in-home abandonment,"
opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of
Japan leader Yukio Edano was quoted as saying by
NHK public TV.
Japan on Monday expanded its state of emergency
to include three prefectures near Tokyo and the
western prefecture of Osaka. An existing
emergency in Tokyo - its fourth since the
pandemic began - and Okinawa is now set to last
through Aug. 31. Japan’s latest
emergency steps, unlike stricter measures in many countries, have
focused mainly on asking eateries that serve alcohol to close and
those that don’t to close by 8 p.m.
The country has avoided a devastating outbreak of the virus, with
about 941,000 total cases and just over 15,000 deaths as of Monday.
But it is now struggling to contain the highly transmissible Delta
variant even as the public grows weary of mostly voluntary limits on
activities and the vaccination rollout lags.
Just under 30% of the population is fully vaccinated, including
three-quarters of those 65 and over.
Nearly 70% of hospital beds for seriously ill COVID-19 patients were
filled as of Sunday, Tokyo data showed.
Showa University Hospital's Sagara said there was a difference
between theoretically available beds and beds that could accept
patients immediately.
"I think the latter is close to zero," he said, adding that if
infections keep rising, hospitals will have to limit surgery and
other non-COVID-19 treatments.
"We must avoid a situation in which the Olympics was held but the
medical system collapsed," he said. "At present, infections are
spreading quite a lot and if they spike further, (the Olympics) will
be considered a failure."
According to health ministry guidelines, seriously ill patients are
defined as those admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) or needing
artificial respirators.
The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said 12,000 patients were isolating at
home, a 12-fold increase in the past month.
(Reporting by Linda Sieg, Akiko Okamoto and Kiyoshi Takenaka;
Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando, Ami Miyazaki and Tim Kelly;
Editing by Gerry Doyle and Nick Macfie)
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