Japan opened state-run mass coronavirus vaccination centers on Monday in Tokyo and Osaka in a bid to accelerate an inoculation program that has lagged far behind other developed countries with just two months remaining before staging the Olympics.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense began taking online reservations for large-scale coronavirus vaccinations for elderly residents in Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture on May 17, ahead of the opening of two mass inoculation centers in those areas on May 24.
The rapid spread of new and more contagious coronavirus variants across Japan, including in the Tokyo metropolitan area, is renewing fears that a further rise could push the medical system in the capital to the brink of collapse.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to declare states of emergency in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures on Friday as the country resorts to contingency measures to contain a fourth wave of the coronavirus.
Government tightens curbs for big cities to ensure ‘safe and secure’ games
TOKYO — Japan declared on Friday a new state of emergency for Tokyo and three other prefectures. The decision comes just three months before the July 23 opening of the Tokyo Olympics and attempts to make the games “safe and secure,” as surging coronavirus cases cloud the event.
The Japanese government has decided to allow Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi prefectures to take stricter measures against the novel coronavirus as they have been hit by a resurgence in new infections, officials said Thursday.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said Monday he has asked the central government to send nurses from the Self-Defense Forces to the western Japan prefecture due to a shortage of healthcare workers attending to patients suffering severe coronavirus cases.
Experts cast doubt over claims by officials in the city of Osaka that a gargling medicine could help treat coronavirus patients, even as shelves across Japan were stripped clean of popular brands. There’s not enough evidence to support Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura’s claim that gargling with diluted povidone-iodine could prevent mild coronavirus patients from falling seriously ill, Toshio Nakagawa, chairman of the Japan Medical Association, told reporters Wednesday. The World Health Organization Center for Health Development also added to skepticism.
