The health ministry decided Monday to include measures to respond to infectious diseases and natural disasters for the first time in a planned revision of the nation's basic guidelines on nursing care programs run by local authorities.
The revised guidelines, coming in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters caused by July's torrential rainfall, call for more training for care workers and for stockpiling face masks and disinfectant to better respond to dangers faced by nursing care facilities in Japan.
The revisions were approved at a meeting of an advisory panel of the minister of health, labor and welfare.