Japan Faces Urgent Need To Secure Medical Staff
Japan's government plans to ask prefectures to send nurses and doctors to each other to ease the serious strain on hospitals treating coronavirus patients.
Government officials plan to launch a framework for inter-prefectural cooperation by seeking the support of the National Governors' Association.
Officials are also urging local authorities to quickly secure more hospital beds, as national infection tallies continue to reach record highs.
On Tuesday, Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo ordered the Self-Defense Forces to dispatch nurses to Asahikawa City in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido to help deal with a surge in infections.
The ministry is also considering sending SDF medical personnel to a COVID-19 critical care facility in Osaka, western Japan.
Kishi told reporters that the ministry will provide as many medical workers as possible. But he acknowledged there are limits, saying it would be extremely difficult to accept all local requests.
Government officials are also worried about medical institutions scaling down their operations for the yearend and New Year holidays. They plan to speed up countermeasures to prevent the burden on hospitals from increasing further.
