Photo/Illutration A doctor at a Kumamoto hospital treats a COVID-19 patient. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Alarm bells are sounding in Japan over a sudden sharp increase in the pace of deaths linked to COVID-19.

The number of COVID-19 fatalities exceeded 50,000 on Dec. 1 after new deaths climbed by 10,000 every three or four months. But in a little over a month, the figure is closing in on 60,000.

And on Jan. 6, cumulative cases of the novel coronavirus exceeded 30 million.

The vast majority of deaths involved senior citizens.

In cases where the ages of the deceased are known, about 68 percent of patients were 80 or older during the period between September 2020 and December 2022, according to health ministry statistics. Another 20 percent were in their 70s.

For many patients advanced in years and already frail or with underlying health issues, catching the coronavirus was the last straw.

Rentaro Oda, who heads the infectious diseases internal medicine department at Tokyo Bay Urayasu Ichikawa Medical Center in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, said senior citizens in hospitals and retirement homes, as well as those living at home, are often hanging on to life in a very precarious state due to past health issues.

Takahiro Nishioka, an official at Osaka Gyoumeikan Hospital, said there has been a clear decrease in the number of patients who develop serious symptoms, but an extraordinary increase in the parameter of new COVID-19 cases.

He said this was particularly noticeable in the number of patients with other chronic illnesses who died after becoming infected with the virus.

Tokyo Business Clinic set up outpatient services at three medical facilities in Tokyo and Chiba for patients who develop fevers. Doctors said there have been many days since mid-November when the maximum number of patients that could be treated was reached.

Yoshihito Niki, a visiting professor of infectious diseases at Showa University in Tokyo, blamed the government’s decision to relax rules to enter Japan while the infectiousness of COVID-19 strengthens, coupled with an absence of other restrictions, as key factors behind recent trends.

“Becoming used to COVID-19 and letting down one’s guard may also be factors,” he said.

Niki noted that the number of new COVID-19 cases may well be far higher than the figures released by the health ministry.

He cited the fact that numerous patients recovering at home are never diagnosed by doctors as having the illness because the government switched its policy priority last autumn to conserve medical resources.

“The largest wave of new cases may already have arrived, so the central and local governments should send out a message to those at risk of developing serious symptoms about the need for stronger precautions against infection,” Niki said.

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The Asahi Shimbun

In a related development, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said a record 7,158 cases occurred in the week between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1 of rescue workers not being able to find a hospital willing to take in an emergency patient even after at least four phone calls to medical institutions. This meant the patients had to wait more than 30 minutes before finding somewhere to take them in.

Adding to medical concerns, the health ministry said Dec. 28 that a flu epidemic had been confirmed throughout the nation. Local officials said that triggered a shortage of medicines to treat fever and antibiotics.

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