Japan hospitals overwhelmed as COVID-19 cases soar

More than 15,000 coronavirus patients in Japan are on waiting lists for a hospital or designated accommodation, a Kyodo News survey has found.

As the number of newly infected people has been rising sharply since November, more infected people have been forced to wait at home amid bed shortages.

The news agency surveyed 11 prefectures that are in the state of emergency since earlier this month. The situation is particularly tough in the capital Tokyo, which has the highest number of infected people – 7,539.

Under the new measures, people have been urged to refrain from going out unnecessarily, while restaurants have been asked to shorten their working hours.

The Health Ministry data showed that the number of patients in at-home isolation centers jumped from 6,429 on Dec. 9 to 35,394 on Jan. 20. There were only 1,096 such individuals on Nov. 4 last year.

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccination efforts, told a parliamentary committee that Japan will hold a coronavirus vaccination simulation in Kawasaki near Tokyo on Wednesday.

“We will assess how long it will take [to vaccinate] and how big the system needs to be. Then we will inform municipalities of the results,” he was quoted as saying.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told the same meeting that he wants to "swiftly bring vaccines to the people."

Japan has signed procurement deals with Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna, and plans to begin the inoculation drive next month. It requires domestic trials for vaccines before granting regulatory approval.

Medical workers are expected to be eligible for vaccination first, followed by people age 65 or older.

The Southeast Asian nation of over 126 million people has reported more than 367,000 cases, including over 5,000 related deaths since the outbreak.