Photo/Illutration Toshio Nakagawa, who heads the Japan Medical Association, at a news conference on Jan. 13 (Ryuichi Hisanaga)

The head of the Japan Medical Association is urging the government to consider declaring a nationwide state of emergency to contain the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic “before it is too late.”

Toshio Nakagawa, the association’s president, raised the prospect at a Jan. 13 news conference to help alleviate some of the pressure on the health care system. That comment came at the same time as he sternly warned that the current surge in infections is pushing the system past the brink.

“Issuing a nationwide state of emergency is an option,” Nakagawa said. “To prevent infections from spreading throughout the country and before it becomes too late, it is critical to implement measures ahead of time.”

The same day, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga added seven more prefectures to the state of emergency that he had initially only declared for Tokyo as well as Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures.

Nakagawa said the health care system has already started to collapse nationwide, although more critically so in the greater Tokyo area.

He pointed to instances where people suffering from a heart attack or stroke had no place to be transported, and times when hospitals in the areas under the state of emergency had to turn down regular outpatients and postpone operations on cancer patients.

“If the number of infection cases keeps rising, the health care system could be wiped out,” Nakagawa warned.

He criticized the central government for being too slow to respond to the changing situation and waiting until after “all the data that indicate infection levels exceed the standards.”

Nakagawa expressed concerns that the number of new cases is significantly larger than in spring 2020, when a state of emergency was declared for the first time.

He said the government needs to implement a legally binding measure to limit people’s movements and activities.