Tokyo urges asymptomatic, mildly ill patients to stay home for recovery
A shortage of hospital beds has caused the Tokyo metropolitan government to announce Thursday that asymptomatic or mildly ill patients of the new coronavirus should stay home to recover under certain conditions from Friday, rather than going through hospitalization procedures.
According to the metropolitan government, about 200 people have been unable to be hospitalized in Tokyo as of Thursday due to a shortage of beds.
Those who are to stay home for recovery include people who test positive but have mild symptoms and are diagnosed by a doctor as not needing to be hospitalized. Those patients have to meet such conditions as staying home separately from their families. Health center staff will check on the patients’ health by phone every day. The patients will be hospitalized if their symptoms worsen.
Also from Friday, the metropolitan government plans to directly transfer patients from their homes to the third hotel it has rented as a temporary accommodation for mildly ill patients, without stopping by at a hospital. The metropolitan government is renting the 919-room Shinagawa Prince Hotel East Tower in Minato Ward, where the accommodation of up to about 450 patients was to start on Friday. Two nurses and a doctor were set to be stationed there to monitor the health of the patients.
Meanwhile, Honda Motor Co. offered Tokyo a special vehicle equipped with a negative pressure unit for free for the purpose of transferring patients. The vehicle was ready to transfer about 10 people on Friday.
