An increasing number of municipalities in Japan are conducting individual medical checkups of infants and toddlers following a decision to suspend group examinations due to worries about the spread of the coronavirus.
The shift is aimed at preparing health care workers and the wider medical system for an expected second wave of COVID-19 infections.
But, counterintuitively, the move has sparked concern that municipal government nurses will be less observant of infants and toddlers, and that the quality of examinations will be inconsistent based on the varying skill-levels of individual doctors.