Tokyo may accept patients from Osaka, other prefectures

The Tokyo metropolitan government is considering accepting moderately ill coronavirus patients from Osaka and other prefectures whose medical systems are strained due to the spread of the virus.

A plan to use Tokyo Fire Department helicopters to transport patients to metropolitan hospitals has been proposed.

In the Kansai region, where highly infectious mutations of the virus are spreading, the number of hospitalized and seriously ill patients has increased rapidly. In Osaka Prefecture, the hospital bed occupancy rate as of Sunday was 88.6%, with an effective rate of more than 100% for beds for the critically ill.

A new state of emergency was declared Sunday in four prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka. As of the same day, however, the occupancy rate of hospital beds in Tokyo was 32.7%. The occupancy rate of hospital beds in the capital for the critically ill was 36.1% as of April 22.

According to officials, a facility opened by the metropolitan government at the Tokyo Metropolitan Tama Medical Center in Fuchu exclusively for coronavirus patients is expected to be able to accept about 10 patients. (April 28)