Japan has significantly fewer COVID-19 cases compared with Western countries and more beds per capita. At the same time, the nation’s hospitals are close to breaking point, overwhelmed with patients.

So far there have been about 390,000 novel coronavirus cases reported in Japan, while the figure is more than 26 million in the United States, 3.8 million in the United Kingdom and 2.2 million in Germany, according to a Reuters tally.

But despite the relatively low number of cases, prefectures currently under a state of emergency are seeing about 70% of their hospital beds for virus patients occupied, causing serious strain on the medical system.