Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to reporters about pre-emergency measure in 14 prefectures on Feb. 9 outside the prime minister’s office in central Tokyo. (Koichi Ueda)

The central government will help establish temporary medical facilities in both Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture that can treat a total of around 1,000 COVID-19 patients, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Feb. 9.

The Tokyo metropolitan government and the Osaka prefectural government will be responsible for setting up and operating the facilities. The central government will be tasked with coordinating the dispatch of 200 nurses to these facilities from public hospitals and other institutions across the nation.

The central government says the aim of the new program is to secure more hospital beds for elderly COVID-19 patients who are at a greater risk of developing serious symptoms.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the temporary medical facilities are intended for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms or those in “Moderate 1” condition who do not need oxygen administration.

Tokyo and Osaka will create the temporary medical facilities by converting hotels and other places currently used as accommodations for COVID-19 patients with no or mild symptoms.

A total of 660 beds in Tokyo and 350 in Osaka will be available for COVID-19 patients at the temporary facilities, which will start to open from mid-February.

The facilities in Tokyo will include ones with rehabilitation equipment designed for elderly patients, including those who are released from hospitals before the standard recuperation periods are completed.

Osaka also intends to alleviate pressure on medical services by using temporary medical facilities to accommodate COVID-19 patients who have recovered earlier than expected in their hospital stays.

“(Those people) should be treated at hospitals, but it is important to ramp up our medical services at both hospitals and complementary temporary medical facilities,” Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said at a news conference on Feb. 9.

Some of Tokyo’s temporary facilities will allow pregnant women and their children to stay together.

The health ministry on Feb. 9 asked the National Hospital Organization and Japan Community Health Care Organization (JCHO), which are both under the ministry’s supervision, to dispatch 59 and 17 nurses, respectively, to the temporary medical facilities.

The ministry also wants nurses to be deployed from university hospitals and public hospitals for an overall total of 200.

However, with infections of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus still spreading nationwide, health minister Shigeyuki Goto said on Feb. 9, “The biggest challenge is securing personnel.”

(This article was written by Ai Asanuma and Kayoko Geji.)

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