Japan Self-Defense Force medical teams are in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido to help with large clusters of coronavirus infections.
Ground Self-Defense Force personnel started working Wednesday at Keiyu-kai Yoshida Hospital and Hokkaido Ryoikuen, a facility for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.
Help is on the way to Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido, which has been hit by cluster infections of the coronavirus. With hospitals struggling with a healthcare worker shortage, the Defense Minister is sending in reinforcements from the Self-Defense Forces.
Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo said, "We concluded that emergency medical assistance to Hokkaido Prefecture is necessary, so we decided to send SDF medical assistance teams on a disaster-relief mission as early as today."
Japan's health ministry has called on public health centers to make it mandatory to conduct coronavirus tests at facilities for the elderly when any of the residents or staff develops a fever or other symptoms.
The ministry issued a notice to public health centers across the country via prefectural governments on Thursday.
The coronavirus pandemic is increasingly making uncertain the future of Japan's project to set up integrated resorts that include casinos.
The government had planned to open the facilities sometime in the mid-2020s.
Torrential rain in western Japan has left dozens of hospitals and welfare facilities flooded, without power, or lacking water.
The health ministry says, as of 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, at least 23 hospitals were affected by flooding, power outages, and disrupted water supplies in the southwestern prefectures of Kumamoto, Fukuoka and Kagoshima, as well as in the western prefecture of Shiga. Officials say water trucks have been sent to the areas. They also say patients are being moved to nearby facilities.
Torrential rains in Japan's southwestern region of Kyushu have left dozens of hospitals and other facilities inundated or without power or water.
Japan's health ministry says at least 22 hospitals in Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Fukuoka prefectures were flooded or had no electricity or water as of 6 a.m. on Tuesday.
About 80 percent of the facilities needed for next year's postponed Tokyo Olympics have been lined up, the president of the organizing committee said Friday.
Two of the largest venues have not yet been secured, however.
A Japanese venture company has developed a smartphone app that can identify risks of exposure to the coronavirus inside medical institutions.
The app was created by an IT firm based in Tokyo that works with the medical industry.
Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko says the names of facilities to be closed down under a state of emergency declared by the prime minister will be announced on Friday.
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for Tokyo and six other prefectures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Nearly 20 percent of facilities in Japan that provide nursing care have run out of surgical masks amid the new coronavirus outbreak.
More than 1,000 care facilities across Japan responded to a survey over the weekend by the Nippon Careservice Craft Union.
The closure of schools across Japan to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading has made childcare facilities busier.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe requested local governments to temporarily close schools from Monday until the start of the spring break in late March.
With less than six months to go until the Tokyo Paralympic Games, NHK has learned many para-sports organizations are concerned about the lack of facilities available to para-athletes.
NHK conducted a survey of 26 domestic para-sports associations and received responses from all of them.
Japan's government plans to have passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who were in close contact with those infected by the new coronavirus stay in facilities it has prepared to monitor their health.
Health minister Katsunobu Kato made the announcement on Friday. The ministry had previously planned to have such passengers remain on the ship.