GEIS-新闻详情

Japan's policy to hospitalise only the sickest Covid-19 patients comes under fire

2021-08-11 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

TOKYO - When Japanese celebrity Makoto Nonomura was diagnosed with Covid-19, the 57-year-old was told to recover at home as doctors assessed that his symptoms were light.

But his condition took a sudden turn for the worse. Mr Nonomura, who voiced the lead character in Studio Ghibli animation Pom Poko (1994) and more recently is a regular on variety shows, is now fighting for his life.

He is one of Tokyo's 197 and Japan's 1,332 Covid-19 patients in severe condition as at Wednesday (Aug 11). Both figures are new highs.

"He cannot get up from bed or go to the toilet," his wife, Toshie, said in remarks carried in domestic media. "Doctors said an X-ray showed that his lungs are totally white. They told me they will contact me in case of an emergency. All I can do now is wait and pray for the best."

Mr Nonomura's plight highlights the risks of Japan's hospitalisation policy announced last week by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to public unease. The policy is to admit only the sickest Covid-19 patients, while all others are to recover at home.

Without round-the-clock care, patients may be left stranded if their condition takes a sudden turn for the worse, as was the case with Mr Nonomura. He was first diagnosed on July 30, and hospitalised six days later.

In a report on Wednesday, public broadcaster NHK also highlighted a Tokyo resident who could only be hospitalised 50km away at the Saitama Medical Centre, in Saitama prefecture north of Tokyo. It is rare for patients to be hospitalised across prefecture borders.

The hospital's Dr Hideaki Oka said: "If patients cannot find a destination in time, they can die. Timely treatment will help, but if this cannot be provided, I think many may lose their lives."

In Tokyo alone, some 19,396 Covid-19 patients were recovering at home as at Wednesday. Another 10,861 were "awaiting guidance" on whether they should be admitted to hospital. Both are new records.

In the current fifth wave of the disease, three Covid-19 patients in Tokyo who were recovering at home have died, including a man in his 30s on Wednesday.

Yet another cause of unease is the fact that many homes - especially in metropolitan areas - are small. This makes social distancing impossible, and family members or housemates of those infected likely to contract Covid-19.

While it is unclear if Mrs Nonomura has been infected, data shows that at least 60 per cent of infections in Tokyo occur at home.

To be clear, this hospitalisation policy is not exactly new. It was used especially during the fourth wave that ravaged the Osaka metropolitan region, though it has thus far been a case-by-case assessment on the part of doctors.

Reports that 84 Covid-19 patients died at home from January to June have fuelled the uneasiness. Mr Suga's policy, on paper, is to prevent overwhelming hospitals as Japan never got around to strengthening its healthcare systems despite lessons that could have been learnt in past waves.