THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 27, 2022 at 17:10 JST
Amid the surging seventh wave of COVID-19 cases in Japan, ambulances are having increasing difficulty in finding hospitals willing to take patients.
In the week through July 24, 6,035 cases were reported in which ambulance crews could not find a hospital to transfer a patient.
That's according to data released by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on July 26.
The figure was up 1,896, or 46 percent, from the previous week.
The 6,035 cases is the second highest behind the 6,064 reported in the week through Feb. 20, amid the sixth wave of infections.
In 2,676 of the 6,035 cases, patients were suspected to have COVID-19.
The 2,676 figure is a record high, exceeding the number of the week until Feb. 13, which was 2,067.
The agency collects data from 52 fire department headquarters in major cities nationwide every week.
It asks each headquarters the number of cases in which ambulance crews that received an emergency call made inquiries to health care organizations four times or more about whether they can accept patients and stayed at the scene for 30 minutes or longer.
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