Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said Aug. 25 that doctors in the capital will continue to report all new COVID-19 cases every day, despite the central government’s decision to ease that burden on medical workers.

Koike told a regular COVID-19 monitoring meeting that the existing requirement of having doctors submit reports on all new cases is useful for grasping the overall infection situation and patients’ conditions in Tokyo. She said medical services can make good use of this information.

“We will take care of each individual patient,” Koike added.

Doctors in Japan are currently required to submit the names, contact numbers and other details of all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 to public health offices run by local governments.

However, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Aug. 24 told reporters that doctors in hard-hit areas will have the option of only reporting COVID-19 cases involving elderly patients and people with pre-existing conditions.

For the other lower-risk cases, medical staff can simply submit numbers based on age group or other information, Kishida said.

The central government changed its policy after local officials said the reporting requirement places too heavy a burden on workers at medical institutions and public health offices who are already struggling amid the latest surge in infections.

Ibaraki Governor Kazuhiko Oigawa welcomed the policy change, saying the lighter reporting requirement will “significantly alleviate the burden on front-line medical services.”

He said at an Aug. 25 news conference that the prefecture will review and simplify the reporting requirement when it is ready.

However, he said that under the new policy, questions could be raised on how to handle patients with minor symptoms whose condition suddenly deteriorates.

If doctors do not report patients with minor symptoms, local public health centers are unlikely to monitor their health conditions. Such patients could be at risk of being unable to receive prompt medical treatment if their symptoms suddenly become severe.

Oigawa said he will ask the central government about this and other points concerning the new policy.

(This article was written by Kayoko Sekiguchi and Kazumichi Kubota.)

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