Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday revealed a plan to designate pneumonia caused by a new strain of coronavirus as a special infectious disease, with the aim of making it possible to provide urgent treatment to patients using public funds.
The designation will allow the government to adopt similar measures as those taken for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) without amending the law.
These measures include the compulsory hospitalization of infected people at one of approximately 400 designated medical institutions in Japan, as well as disinfection of sites where the virus has been detected. Doctors will be obliged to report any patients who test positive for the virus.