Photo/Illutration Campers deployed by the Tokyo metropolitan government to use as quarantine facilities for patients with COVID-19 are lined up in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, on Feb. 8. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)

Campers have been rounded up and prefabricated houses placed by the Tokyo metropolitan government to isolate infected individuals and slow the fast-moving spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in households. 

Twenty campers and prefabricated houses set up at a site in Tachikawa in western Tokyo were shown to the media on Feb. 8, the day before the start of operations. 

The metropolitan government will begin accepting 65 patients who show no symptoms. Up to 350 beds will be made available by the end of February.

The prefab housing and campers will be sited on land owned by Tachihi Holdings Co. near Tachihi Station on the Tama Monorail in Tachikawa.

The metropolitan government and the company have an agreement for the 10,000-square-meter plot to be a hub for transporting relief materials in the event of a natural disaster.

A fabricated house has a room 8.5 square meters wide where individuals can isolate themselves. 

A camper is equipped with a bunk bed to accommodate a child and an adult who want to keep the rest of the family from contracting COVID-19. 

A communal space is also set up on the property where a large TV set and exercise machines are available. Nurses will be stationed there.

In the capital, as of Feb. 8, 81,000 infected individuals are recuperating at home, while 75,000 infected people are awaiting word from public health centers if they should be hospitalized, stay home or be isolated in quarantine facilities.

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