Local governments in Japan are rushing to set up temporary treatment sites for COVID-19 patients as the recent surge in infections causes a serious shortage of hospital beds nationwide, with 25 governments having already opened or planning to open such facilities, a Kyodo News survey has found.
But the nationwide survey, conducted from Aug. 26 to Thursday, also found that most of the governments continue to face difficultues securing doctors and health care workers to operate the sites.
Record levels of COVID-19 cases, triggered by the spread of the coronavirus' more transmissible delta variant, have outstripped hospital capacities to treat patients in many parts of the country.