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People wearing protective face masks walk on the street under a nationwide state of emergency amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Tokyo, Japan, May 10, 2020. /Reuters
More than 90 percent of the hospital beds secured for COVID-19 patients in Tokyo have already been occupied, the Japanese Health Ministry said on Sunday, underscoring the pressing need to curb the further spread of the new coronavirus.
A total of 1,832 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized in the capital as of April 28, or 91.6 percent of the 2,000 beds made available for such patients, the ministry said.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to boost the number of beds for COVID-19 patients to 4,000 eventually.
"There is a possibility that the virus will spread further. It is necessary to bring closer the number of beds from 2,000 to such target quickly," a health ministry official said.
About 5,000 people in Tokyo were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, representing nearly a third of Japan's total infections of around 16,000, according to Japan's national broadcasting organization NHK.
Nationwide, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients came to 5,558 as of April 28, compared to the 14,486 beds set aside for those infected with COVID-19, bringing down the occupancy rate to 38 percent, data from the ministry showed.
Japan could end state of emergency for regions with stable virus cases
The government last week extended the state of emergency to the end of May. However, some nonessential businesses, even in the 13 hardest-hit prefectures designated "special alert districts," including Tokyo and Osaka, have already reopened despite the extension.
Japan has avoided an explosive outbreak of the novel coronavirus, with some 15,847 cases of COVID-19 and 633 deaths as of Monday, according to an NHK report. The number of new infections has been on a declining trend over the past week.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday said the government will consider whether to partially lift the state of emergency in many of the 34 prefectures on May 14.
"We have been able to proceed steadily towards an end," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary session, referring to the epidemic.
( With input from agencies )
