Hospitals in Japan’s second-largest city, Osaka, are deforming a massive wave of new coronavirus infections, lack of beds and enthusiasts as exhausted doctors warn of a “system collapse” and advise opposing the Olympic Games this summer.
Japan’s nine million-person western region is suffering the fourth wave of the pandemic, representing one-third of the country’s deaths in May, representing only 7% of its population.
The speed at which Osaka’s fitness formula has been surpassed highlights the demanding situations of hosting a world’s first sporting occasion in two months, especially as only a portion of Japanese doctors have finished vaccinations.
“Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system,” said Yuji Tohda, director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka. “The highly infectious British variant and slippery alertness have led to this explosive expansion in the number of patients. “
Japan has moved away from primary infections in other countries, but the fourth pandemic wave has stormed Osaka Prefecture, with 3,849 new positive tests during the week through Thursday, representing a jump of more than five times compared to the corresponding 3-year era. Months ago.
Only 14% of the 13,770 patients with COVID-19 in the prefecture were hospitalized, leaving most to fend for themselves. Tokyo’s last hospitalization rate, by comparison, is 37%.
A government advisory committee considers rates below 25% to be a cause of state of emergency. On Thursday, 96% of the 348 hospital beds booked in Osaka for severe virus cases were used. Since March, 17 other people have died from the disease. from door to the prefecture’s hospitals, authorities said this month.
The variant can cause even other young people to be in very bad health temporarily and, once seriously ill, patients have difficulty recovering, said Toshiaki Minami, director of Osaka University Medical and Pharmaceutical Hospital (OMPUH). “I think so far, many other young people think they are invincible. But that may not be the case this time. Everyone also runs the risk. “
Breaking point
Minami said a provider had recently told him that stocks of propofol, a key drug used to sleep in intubated patients, were very low, while Tohda Hospital lacked significant fans for patients with severe COVID-19.
The care of critically ill patients at risk of infection has come at a high price in Array, said Satsuki Nakayama, head of the nursing department of omPUH. “I have the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who say they have reached a breaking point,” he added. “I want to think about turning the body of workers into bringing other people from other hospital wings. “
Approximately 500 doctors and 950 nurses paint at OMPUH, which manages 832 beds. Ten of its 16 extensive care beds have been earmarked for patients inflamed by the virus. Twenty of the approximately 140 serious patients admitted to the hospital died in the intensive care unit.
Yasunori Komatsu, who runs a regionally passing government employees’ union, said situations were also dire for public fitness nurses in local fitness centers, which serve as a liaison between patients and medical institutions. “Some of them collect 100, 150, two hundred hours (about a week), and 1 and a half days) of overtime, and this takes a year now. at two o’clock in the morning, and we only go to bed just to be woken up by phone call at 3 or 4 in the morning. ‘clock. ‘
Health professionals who revel firsthand with Osaka’s fight against the pandemic have a negative view of the Tokyo Games, which will take a position from July 23 to August 8. variants,” said Akira Takasu, head of emergency medicine at OMPUH.
Referring to a variant, he first discovered in India that the World Health Organization was known as a fear after initial studies showed that it spread more easily. “At the Olympics, 70,000 or 80,000 athletes and others will come to this country from all over the world. world. This may be the cause of some other crisis this summer. “