Japan, alarmed by rising coronavirus deaths and the specter of the collapse of its medical system, is scrambling to expand testing with drive-thru facilities and general practitioners helping to collect samples.
For weeks, Japan has limited its testing for the coronavirus, which emerged in neighboring China late last year, despite calls from many health experts who see testing as vital to detecting and isolating cases and slowing the spread.
Japan conducted about 52,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in March, or just 16 percent of the number carried out in South Korea, according to data from Oxford University.