What would you do if you were to develop a fever tomorrow?

The government on Oct. 13 released, as part of its preparedness against a possible simultaneous outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease and influenza, a “schematic flow chart of outpatient consultations and recuperation.”

The document encourages elderly citizens, children and other high-risk individuals to promptly consult doctors when they have developed a fever or other symptoms.

However, it assumes that junior high school students and others under 65 should, in principle, “self-test” for COVID-19 and self-isolate at home when they have tested positive.

During the sixth wave of coronavirus infections last winter and the seventh wave of last summer, fever clinics were so crowded at the reception level that few patients ever got around to being examined by doctors.

Given the limited availability of medical resources, we have no objection to the very idea that priority should be given to those at higher risk of developing serious symptoms.

The specific measures being proposed by the government, however, give the undeniable impression that they were all whipped up in a hurry and contain a mountain of unresolved problems.

Let’s suppose, for starters, that those who have developed a fever are left to make an initial decision on their own. There is every reason to feel uneasy about whether a system is available for providing proper support for them and whether prompt intervention could be made if the health of a patient takes a sudden turn for the worse.

COVID-19 and influenza are not the only diseases that are accompanied by a fever. If people in the most productive years of their lives are to refrain from seeing doctors, that could leave their diseases to go unnoticed or be diagnosed too late.

The document says that those who have tested negative for COVID-19 are entitled, if they wish, to consult doctors by telephone or online, but it appears doubtful if that would allow them to be examined accurately.

Only a limited number of medical institutions, in the first place, are currently available to provide online consultations. The measure being proposed would require a considerable expansion of the online examination capabilities.

Government officials have said they will call on members of the public to purchase COVID-19 test kits in advance at drugstores or elsewhere on their own. Similar test kits, however, could seldom be described as cheap, so it remains anybody’s guess as to how much cooperation can be obtained from the public.

Caution is required because many of the test kits circulating in the market are of types that have not been approved by the health ministry. What is really essential here is to build a mechanism that would allow people to be tested reliably at locations in their immediate surroundings.

Hospitals and clinics that are accepting patients with suspected coronavirus infections account for only less than 40 percent of all medical institutions, and the ratio has almost stopped increasing these days.

It remains a major challenge how much more they could still be increased in number.

A sense of alarm was shown, during a recent meeting of a government subcommittee, that an eighth wave of COVID-19 cases to come could turn out more serious than any other coronavirus outbreak of the past, officials said.

The caseloads of novel coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are reportedly on the rise in Europe. The officials should realize they have little time for preparing and notifying the public.

Different local governments are dealing differently with the two available types of vaccines that target Omicron variants of the novel coronavirus. Health ministry officials are calling on the public to be inoculated with whichever Omicron vaccine is available sooner, but many are feeling at a loss for a choice.

The officials have said they will decide by the end of this month by how much they can shorten the minimum vaccination interval from the current five months.

They are taking too much time. Everything could be wasted if they were to miss their target of having everyone inoculated with an Omicron vaccine by year-end.

Both the central and local governments are called upon to send their messages out carefully.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 16