Over 118,000 people in Japan recuperating at home from Covid: Bed shortages to sport
Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The government of Japan and the Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike are apt for caring about international athletes, International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, the international media, and providing adequate health care provisions. However, in the same timescale of the Olympics and Paralympics, many people have died at home because of the shortage of beds concerning the coronavirus (Covid-19).
As usual, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is fine with showing images of Cabinet members visiting the Yasukuni Shrine to highlight the undercurrent of nationalism. Yet, this fake nationalism is obvious. After all, the same LDP elites aren’t pained by ordinary Japanese nationals dying at home because of bed shortages.
NHK says that just over 118,000 people are now recuperating at home from the coronavirus. This figure will increase when Saitama provides its latest figure. Therefore, the media in Japan should do more to question the ineptitude of the ruling elites and their lack of sincerity.
NHK reports, “The figure increased by more than 21,000, or 22 percent, from last Wednesday.”
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Koike had ample time to provide adequate facilities in the worst-case scenario. However, Suga and Koike instead went full steam ahead on holding the Olympics and Paralympics. Even when new daily coronavirus highs were being reached dramatically during the same timeframe, they merely brushed all connections under the carpet and congratulated themselves on hosting both sporting events.
Modern Tokyo Times, in another article, stated, “Shockingly, even when Suga and Koike understood that the Delta variant (first reported in India) was spreading throughout Asia – and further afield – they still focused on the Olympics. Hence, despite increasing numbers of Delta infections being reported in Japan, they still didn’t prepare the health care system adequately both regionally and nationally.”
Nobody is claiming that all 118,000 people recuperating at home needed hospital beds. However, vast numbers of people did. Hence, while athletes enjoyed relaxing beds and had health care professionals available during all sporting events; the opposite applied to people in Japan because of horrendous bed and equipment shortages concerning the coronavirus.
Last week, a mother in her forties died at home in Tokyo from coronavirus. Apparently, she believed that her symptoms were mild and she didn’t want to burden the health care system. This news was followed by a premature baby dying at home after her mother with coronavirus was turned away from a hospital in Chiba prefecture (a neighboring prefecture of Tokyo). Other known tragic cases have emerged in various parts of Japan concerning preventable deaths if medical priority had been given by Suga and Koike.
The Olympic and Paralympic timeframe witnessed notable changes in perceptions. For others, it furthered the utter hypocrisy of Suga and Koike. Indeed, Koike, who is telling people to stay at home and do telework if possible in Tokyo, is rubbing salt into the wound by inviting vast numbers of schoolchildren to the Paralympics.
Koike fully understands that the health care system is under enormous strain. Equally, she knows that many people are suffering from negative economic convulsions. However, despite the central government and members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government opposing children being invited to the Paralympics, she puts her own opinions and ideas first.
Not surprisingly, Japan reached a new high yesterday of having 2,000 coronavirus patients suffering from serious conditions. This concerns the need for ventilators or being treated appropriately in intensive care wards. Of course, under Koike, the numbers are diluted because of the way Tokyo counts severe cases.
Political heads should roll because Suga and Koike not only prioritized the Olympics and Paralympics at all times. They also never planned for the worst-case scenario concerning the coronavirus, even when it was obvious that the Delta variant (first detected in India) was highly infectious and spreading mayhem in many nations.
The upshot of the Olympics and Paralympics timeframe is 118,000 people recuperating at home; approximately 2,000 national severe cases (higher when Saitama reports its figure and if Tokyo counted like other prefectures); the health care system is under enormous strain; preventable home deaths; bed and equipment shortages; new daily infection highs in the majority of prefectures; and the increasing economic and psychological burden concerning the longevity of the crisis and the severity of the latest coronavirus wave.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210827_33/
https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/ – Tokyo Metropolitan Government website for updates about the coronavirus crisis in Tokyo.
https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html – Japan and Tokyo Covid-19 news with more analysis
https://covid19japan.com/ – Japan regional coronavirus statistics
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ World coronavirus statistics
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