As Japan struggles to contain a recent surge of coronavirus infections, preventing the virus from spreading within households has become a major challenge.

An increasing number of COVID-19 patients have been told to recover at home as many parts of the nation see a shortage of hospital beds. However, medical experts have highlighted the dangers of home isolation and the difficulty of stopping others in the infected person's household from being exposed even when preventive steps are taken.

A 49-year-old woman in Sapporo, Hokkaido, recently spoke of how the virus had quickly spread among three generations of her family living in one apartment despite the basic anti-virus steps they took, such as remaining isolated in separate rooms, wearing masks and disinfecting surfaces.