Hospital beds for COVID-19 patients are increasingly in short supply as the rapidly growing outbreak in the Tokyo metropolitan region continues to inundate the local health care system with new cases.
The fifth wave of the pandemic — fueled by the deadlier, more contagious delta variant — is triggering new infections at a rate that has been surpassing previous records in the greater Tokyo area consistently since late July.
While many hospitals in and around the capital are nearing their limits, the intended impact of a major policy shift announced last week by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga — to prioritize severe cases by having moderately ill patients recover at home — remains to be seen.