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TOKYO – Japan is facing a serious medical crisis as the number of patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms tripled in one month to hit a new high of 505 on Friday (December 4).
The death toll is also rising rapidly, with a new one-day record of 45 deaths.
In line with the worsening situation, anger rises at the response of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government to the crisis.
The leaders of the prefecture accused the national government of simply passing the buck to them.
Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, who declared a “red alert” in his prefecture on Thursday, lamented how Parliament did not consider the laws for Covid-19 in light of the medical crisis.
Doctors also criticized the apparent lack of urgency, citing interim measures proposed by politicians, including the transfer of non-specialists in infectious diseases to help in the fight against Covid-19.
In a widely shared Facebook post, Dr. Hideaki Oka of the Saitama Medical Center in Kawagoe City, north of Tokyo, compared the situation to flight operations.
He posted: “Current political decisions are like saying that all is well because there are still planes left, even if they are being flown by mobilized inexperienced pilots. Is this really safe?”
This occurs when hospital beds are in short supply and doctors and nurses are overworked to the point of exhaustion.
In Osaka, doctors and nurses are being transferred to the Osaka City Juso Hospital, which has been designated for Covid-19 patients. About 25 hospital employees have resigned since the start of the pandemic.
Osaka City General Hospital has had to close its cancer ward for patients aged 15 to 39 because there simply weren’t enough nurses to care for them.
Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital has reduced the size of its intensive care units, while Sapporo City General Hospital is not taking new patients.
Clusters of hospitals have also emerged, including one in the Hokkaido city of Asahikawa with at least 214 Covid-19 infections.
Medical experts warn that hospitals in the worst affected areas are at a tipping point. Pregnant women and patients with other conditions are being turned away amid severe shortages of medical personnel.
However, Suga insists the government is responding “with the strongest sense of crisis.”
At a press conference on Friday to mark the end of the Diet session, he vowed to “secure a sufficient reserve fund to be able to respond to what happens.” The Cabinet will compile its third emergency stimulus next week to provide further support to struggling businesses and medical institutions.
Part of the stimulus will also go towards a five-month extension of the Go To Travel domestic tourism campaign through June.
Japan registered at least 2,442 new cases on Friday, according to a tally by public broadcaster NHK. That brought the total number of cases in the country to 158,411. A total of 2,306 people have died.
The capital added 449 new cases and the president of the Tokyo Medical Association, Haruo Ozaki, urged the government to take stronger measures rather than randomly incoherent policies.
Osaka registered 394 new cases, but its streets remained crowded despite the local “red alert.” Media reports said residents were either tired of requests to stay home or paralyzed by demands from their employers to report to work.
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