The head of a Tokyo hospital where an outbreak of the coronavirus killed dozens of patients has apologized for insufficient measures to deal with the infectious disease.
Eiju General Hospital in Tokyo confirmed 214 coronavirus cases since March, including 109 inpatients, 83 doctors and other staff members and 22 people who have had close contact with those infected. Forty-three inpatients died.
A Japanese health ministry survey says the country's 47 prefectures have only secured less than half the number of hospital beds they will need for coronavirus patients when the outbreak reaches its peak.
The survey says more than 31,000 beds will be needed for coronavirus patients at the peak of the outbreak, but fewer than 14,500 had been secured as of May 1.
A hospital in the western Japanese city of Kobe has found that about 3 percent of its outpatients carry coronavirus antibodies, indicating they were infected at one point.
A group of doctors, mainly from Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, collected 1,000 blood samples from patients who visited the hospital for reasons other than coronavirus symptoms between late March and early April.
Tokyo's Keio University Hospital says roughly six percent of its non-coronavirus patients have tested positive for the virus.
Hospital officials say 67 patients underwent pre-surgery or pre-hospitalization screening last week. None of them had coronavirus symptoms, but four of them tested positive.
NHK has learned that nine of Japan's 47 prefectures have almost run out of hospital beds to treat coronavirus patients.
NHK asked prefectural governments and other entities about the number of beds they have secured and how many are occupied.
A major Japanese airline group has offered to help make medical gowns to prepare for shortages that hospitals in the country may face amid the coronavirus pandemic.
ANA Holdings, the parent company of All Nippon Airways, floated the idea in response to consultation from the government.
Keio University Hospital in Tokyo says 18 trainee doctors have contracted the coronavirus. The infections came to light after dozens of trainees dined together, despite being repeatedly warned not to.
The hospital says in a statement on its website that one trainee, who completed an internship program in the hospital, initially tested positive on March 31.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials plan to secure up to 4,000 hospital beds to accept new coronavirus patients in case of a sudden surge in infections.
Officials on Monday held a meeting of a new coronavirus taskforce and disclosed future policies to respond to the outbreak.
Japanese lawmakers have formed a nonpartisan group to push for the introduction of hospital ships that can provide medical care in the event of a major disaster or an infectious outbreak such as the new coronavirus.
Diet members of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and others held an inaugural meeting on Thursday.
Police in Kobe, western Japan, are investigating the theft of 6,000 surgical masks from a hospital in the city. Masks are in short supply in the country due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Staff at the Japanese Red Cross Kobe Hospital noticed last Thursday that four cartons containing 120 boxes of masks were missing. The hospital notified the police on Monday.
Sources say two people have been rushed to hospital after arriving in Japan from China on the fifth flight chartered by the Japanese government.
The flight from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, landed at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Monday morning. It was carrying 36 Japanese nationals and 29 Chinese, many of whom are spouses.
A hospital in Sagamihara City near Tokyo says one member of staff is confirmed to have the new coronavirus.
The hospital said on its website that the worker had been treating a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture who died last week.