Second largest city crumples under COVID-19 onslaught
Japan opens mass vaccination sites
Hospitals in Japan's second largest city of Osaka are buckling under a huge wave of new coronavirus infections, running out of beds and ventilators as exhausted doctors warn of a "system collapse," and advise against holding the Olympics in the summer of 2021.
The speed at which Osaka's healthcare system was overwhelmed underscores the challenges of hosting a major global sports event in two months' time, particularly as only about half of Japan's medical staff have completed inoculations.
"Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system," said Yuji Tohda, the director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka.
"The highly infectious British variant and slipping alertness have led to this explosive growth in the number of patients."
Japan has avoided the large infections suffered by other nations.
Just 14 percent of the prefecture's 13,770 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized, leaving the majority to fend for themselves. Tokyo's latest hospitalization rate, in comparison, is 37 percent.
A government advisory panel sees rates of less than 25 percent as a trigger to consider imposition of a state of emergency. By Thursday, 96 percent of the 348 hospital beds Osaka reserves for serious virus cases were in use. Since March, 17 people have died from the disease outside the prefecture's hospitals, officials said in May.
The variant can make even young people very sick quickly, and once seriously ill, patients find it tough to make a recovery, said Toshiaki Minami, director of the Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital.
Japan opened mass inoculation centers on Monday as it races to vaccinate most of its elderly population before the start of the Tokyo Olympics.
The centers in Tokyo and Osaka will vaccinate thousands of people every day, giving a boost to Japan's sluggish inoculation drive as officials battle a fourth wave of coronavirus infections. "It's better to get it early," said Tetsuya Urano, 66, who was among the first to be vaccinated in Tokyo. "It went pretty smoothly, all in all."
The Tokyo facility will operate 12 hours a day to dispense shots to 10,000 people daily for the next three months. The site in Osaka, Japan's western metropolis, will build up to about 5,000 shots a day.
Just 4.4 percent of Japan's population of 125 million have received at least one vaccine dose, according to Reuters' global tracker, the slowest rate among the world's larger, rich countries.
A general view of the newly-opened mass vaccination centre in Osaka, Japan, on Monday Photo: VCG
Japan's western region home to 9 million people is suffering the brunt of the fourth wave of the pandemic, accounting for a third of the country's death toll in May, although it constitutes just 7 percent of its population.The speed at which Osaka's healthcare system was overwhelmed underscores the challenges of hosting a major global sports event in two months' time, particularly as only about half of Japan's medical staff have completed inoculations.
"Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system," said Yuji Tohda, the director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka.
"The highly infectious British variant and slipping alertness have led to this explosive growth in the number of patients."
Japan has avoided the large infections suffered by other nations.
Just 14 percent of the prefecture's 13,770 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized, leaving the majority to fend for themselves. Tokyo's latest hospitalization rate, in comparison, is 37 percent.
A government advisory panel sees rates of less than 25 percent as a trigger to consider imposition of a state of emergency. By Thursday, 96 percent of the 348 hospital beds Osaka reserves for serious virus cases were in use. Since March, 17 people have died from the disease outside the prefecture's hospitals, officials said in May.
The variant can make even young people very sick quickly, and once seriously ill, patients find it tough to make a recovery, said Toshiaki Minami, director of the Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital.
Japan opened mass inoculation centers on Monday as it races to vaccinate most of its elderly population before the start of the Tokyo Olympics.
The centers in Tokyo and Osaka will vaccinate thousands of people every day, giving a boost to Japan's sluggish inoculation drive as officials battle a fourth wave of coronavirus infections. "It's better to get it early," said Tetsuya Urano, 66, who was among the first to be vaccinated in Tokyo. "It went pretty smoothly, all in all."
The Tokyo facility will operate 12 hours a day to dispense shots to 10,000 people daily for the next three months. The site in Osaka, Japan's western metropolis, will build up to about 5,000 shots a day.
Just 4.4 percent of Japan's population of 125 million have received at least one vaccine dose, according to Reuters' global tracker, the slowest rate among the world's larger, rich countries.
RELATED ARTICLES
