Prefectures rush to secure hospital beds amid surge

Hospital bed occupancy rates for COVID-19 patients are rising in Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi prefectures, where emergency-level “priority measures” started on Monday. Measures such as the shortening of business hours for eateries in relevant cities have begun, and prefectural governments are scrambling to improve their medical care delivery structures.

This is the first time the priority measures have been applied since being added to the revised law on special measures against new strains of influenza in February. The measures will continue for one month through May 5 in Osaka City, Sendai, and the Hyogo Prefecture cities of Kobe, Amagasaki, Nishinomiya and Ashiya.

Hospital bed occupancy rates are most serious in Hyogo Prefecture.

The occupancy rate of hospital beds secured for COVID-19 patients had increased to 66% as of Sunday, up from 41% two weeks earlier on March 21, according to the Cabinet Secretariat.

An occupancy rate exceeding 50% falls within Stage 4, the most serious stage.

According to the Kobe city government, the city’s bed occupancy rate has reached 85%. In order to secure additional beds, the city government had reduced the number of non-COVID hospitalizations and surgeries at its three municipal hospitals by 30% to 40%.

The bed occupancy rate for Osaka Prefecture is 47%, approaching Stage 4. The occupancy rates for beds secured for seriously ill patients are also increasing.

On Monday, Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura referred to the possibility of declaring a “medical state of emergency” if the occupancy rate reaches the most serious level based on the prefectural government’s own standards within a few days.

The Osaka prefectural government plans to secure 1,300 beds for COVID-19 patients who require care such as rehabilitation after their condition improves, in order to promote smooth transfers between hospitals. It also plans to quickly set up lodgings exclusively for patients with coronavirus variants.

The bed occupancy rate for Miyagi Prefecture is 42%. Sendai Mayor Kazuko Kori said, “People have no choice but to be hospitalized in remote areas [outside of Sendai].”

In Tokyo, the bed occupancy rate is 25%. “If the number of infected people continues to increase at this rate, the healthcare delivery system will inevitably be strained again,” a Tokyo metropolitan government official said. (April 7)