Suga Apologizes For Strained Healthcare System
Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has apologized for the government's failure to provide sufficient medical care under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic.
Suga made the apology at a Diet committee session on Tuesday.
A senior opposition lawmaker noted that some infected people cannot be hospitalized. Tsujimoto Kiyomi of the Constitutional Democratic Party said people have died alone at home without hospital care.
She added that others have died during emergency transportation.
The lawmaker asked Suga if he feels responsible for the lives that could not be saved through public help.
Suga said it is the government's duty to reinforce the system so that people never die on the way to the hospital.
He said there is public concern over whether everybody can promptly receive necessary medical treatment, and that he feels very sorry as the person in charge.
The exchange came one day after police revealed that, since last March, nearly 200 people with the coronavirus have died outside the healthcare system.
Overcrowded hospitals are being forced to turn more and more infected people away. At last count, more than 35,000 carriers in Japan were caring for themselves at home.