At the beginning of April, a young sumo wrestler known as Shobushi came down with a fever. His coaches tried calling a local public health center to get him a coronavirus test, but the phone lines were busy.
For four days, he was turned away by clinics in Tokyo overwhelmed during a surge of COVID-19 cases. He was finally admitted to hospital on April 8 when he began coughing up blood, but died of the disease on May 13, the Japan Sumo Association said.
Shobushi's death caused a public outcry over testing limitations and a reliance on overstretched public health centers at a time when most experts were saying widespread virus checks are crucial to containing the pandemic.