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TOKYO: Tokyo, the Japanese capital, faced with acute strains on its medical system from the COVID-19 pandemic, raised its alert level to the highest of four stages on Thursday (December 17) as the number of new cases soared to a daily record. of 822.
A health official said it had become difficult to balance the care of COVID-19 patients with the usual as hospital beds filled and a “red” alert had been assigned for the first time for medical preparedness.
“We fear serious dysfunction of the medical system in two weeks, on December 31, if the number of new daily infections continues to grow at the current rate,” Masataka Inokuchi, vice president of the Tokyo Medical Association, said at a press conference at attended by the Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike.
“Medical service providers have exhausted all available resources. Reducing the number of patients (COVID-19) will be the only way forward.”
The metropolitan government of the city of 14 million people said the number of new coronavirus cases reached 822 on Thursday, beating the previous record of 678 reached a day earlier.
Pedestrians wearing protective masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic head to a shopping district in Tokyo on December 17, 2020 (Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon).
Tokyo issued a special COVID-19 alert for the end of the year and new year periods to raise public awareness, Koike said.
“We need to make this Christmas season a special time to stop the spread of infections.”
The Tokyo government has asked the capital’s medical institutions to increase the number of hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 patients to 4,000 from the current 3,000, it said.
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A month ago, Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert for new infections, a separate category, to the highest level. He had kept his alert for medical readiness at the second highest level at the time, indicating a need to increase hospital capacity, but one level below critical conditions.
Japan has reported an overall total of 190,935 infections and 2,791 deaths from the respiratory disease since the outbreak began earlier this year, according to public broadcaster NHK.
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