Japan's health minister on Wednesday signaled the government may consider rolling back a controversial new policy asking COVID-19 patients with less serious symptoms to isolate at home rather than going to the hospital.
But Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, speaking to reporters later in the day, said that he would not withdraw the policy, but was instead seeking the public's understanding that it would not necessarily be implemented uniformly nationwide. Moderate cases who need to be hooked up to a ventilator, he said, would be hospitalized.
Suga's comments came just hours after his ruling Liberal Democratic Party decided at a meeting to urge the government to withdraw the policy.