Joe Tomei here with another update from the JET prefectural advisors, Bilal Khan & Lily McDermott.

Here some more updates for today:

・Additional case in Kumamoto (33 total cases in Kumamoto Prefecture) The new case (Case 33) is a female company manager/executive in her 60s in the Aso Area, who is the mother of Case 31 (male company manager/executive in his 40s in the Aso Area). She received a PCR test on April 15th which came back positive. She complained of discomfort in her throat after showing symptoms of coughing and a runny nose on the 12th, but is thought to be a mild case. She has not traveled or left the Aso Area in the two weeks before the onset of symptoms. Her husband, who lives together with her, was tested and came back negative on the 15th.

There is more information on Case 32 from Kita-ku, mentioned briefly in the previous email. According to Kumamoto City, he is a taxi driver who complained of fatigue and treated at his home on the 11th, but his symptoms worsened. He was transported by ambulance on the 14th, and administered a PCR test on the 15th, which came back positive. His is a moderately severe case, requiring the administration of oxygen. He did not go to work in the three days preceding the onset of his symptoms, but did take one passenger on the 11th. The route of infection is unknown.

In other news, authorities have come to the conclusion that no hospital-acquired infection has occurred at Kuma Hospital in Hitoyoshi. Kumamoto Prefecture says that all 165 tests performed on patients and doctors who potentially came in contact with the infected doctor were negative.

・Government-provided cloth masks begin arriving in Kumamoto Cloth masks have begun to reach facilities for persons with disabilities and facilities for the elderly in Kumamoto Prefecture. An after-school day service in Kita-ku, Kumamoto City received the masks and distributed them to the kids. The masks are smaller than a general non-fabric mask. Despite some people questioning the effectiveness of the filter, when asked, the manager of the Kitako after-school day service said “Lack of masks will continue… it’s better than no distribution.” https://this.kiji.is/623142396424635489?c=92619697908483575

・Tokyo: Increasing number of emergency patients turned down by hospitals NHK has reported that in there is an increasing number of incidents in which multiple hospitals refuse patients transported by ambulances in Tokyo. In one case, a patient who had symptoms that could potentially have been caused by COVID-19 (fever or respiratory distress, etc.) was refused admission by over 110 medical institutions, waiting over 10 hours before being admitted to a hospital over 40 km from his home.

According to the Tokyo Fire Department and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, in March there were over 931 cases in which patients being transported in ambulances were either refused by 5 or more hospitals, or waited over 20 minutes before finding a hospital to admit them. This is 33% higher than the number of reported cases during the same period last year. In addition, between 1 April and 11 April alone, there were over 830 such cases.

The article goes on to quote the Vice-Chairman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Association, as well as a physician named Dr. Fumie Harada who works at a hospital in Taito-ku, who both suggest that the reason is that many hospitals are not sufficiently prepared to handle patients with infectious diseases, and are therefore not admitting patients suspected of being infected out of fear that they would be unable to prevent an outbreak at their hospitals.

To improve the situation, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is currently considering implementing a system in which all emergency patients with suspected COVID-19 symptoms are first sent to a Returnee/Virus Contact Consultation Center, given a PCR test on the spot, and then sent on to different hospitals depending on the test result. Full article and video clip here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200415/k10012389101000.html