Just as Japan is experiencing a fifth wave of coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced his intention to step down. Whoever is to succeed him will assume office in about a month.

       The number of severely ill COVID-19 patients in Japan is hovering around record highs, and a shortage of hospital beds is hitting Tokyo and surrounding prefectures particularly hard. A vacuum in the government's coronavirus countermeasures must not be tolerated.

       Since coming into office a year ago, Prime Minister Suga has markedly tended to attach more weight to economic activities than infection countermeasures. He was fixated on promoting the "Go To Travel" domestic tourism subsidy program as his flagship economic policy, and failed to stave off the rapid surge in infections. He ended up being driven into declaring a second state of emergency over the coronavirus.

       Furthermore, Suga subsequently lifted the state of emergency without waiting for the number of infections to drop sufficiently, leading to the resurgence of transmissions as a consequence.

       As a result of Suga's overreliance on COVID-19 vaccinations to curb infections, he has failed to take a well-balanced response thereafter.

       While he raised a goal of completing the inoculation of elderly people -- a population at high risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms -- by the end of July, he failed to enhance and improve the nation's medical system sufficiently. As a result, there have been a rising number of cases where patients recuperating at home are unable to find hospitals to immediately accept them even after their conditions deteriorate, and die without receiving sufficient medical treatment.

       Moreover, the prime minister has shown no signs of seeking to have scientific knowledge adequately reflected in his policy measures.

       Experts had warned that the number of severely ill COVID-19 patients would increase unless the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant was contained. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Suga pressed ahead with holding the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, failing to adopt effective countermeasures.

       While experts on the government's coronavirus subcommittee compiled a set of proposals to relax restrictions on people's activities, the recommendation came at the urging of the government itself. The proposal is premised on the view that vaccinations will progress and is too hastily pushing forward with economic activities.

       Behind the move lies Suga's optimistic awareness of the status quo, that Japan was "beginning to see the light clearly" at the end of the tunnel of its coronavirus response. However, medical experts have one after the other condemned the subcommittee's proposal, stating that suggesting measures to ease restrictions at this point could lead to public complacency over the pandemic.

       Now is the time to focus on putting an end to the fifth wave of infections. It is essential for the central government to work in tandem with prefectural governments to put their utmost efforts into securing medical professionals and extra hospital beds. They also must concurrently improve systems for local clinics and other medical institutions to respond to patients recovering at home.

       Above all else, what is sought after is politics that is bent on protecting the lives of people with seamless countermeasures.

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