The health ministry said Friday it has issued a notice regarding its stance on patients with moderate or no symptoms of infection with the new coronavirus in preparation for the further spread of the virus.
In areas where a shortage of hospital beds has been a concern, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry now intends to change the system to one that will allow patients with moderate or no symptoms to stay at home or other places without being hospitalized to ensure that patients with severe symptoms are admitted to hospitals.
The notice, dated April 2, calls for doctors who give diagnoses at special outpatient departments and other places to determine whether the patients need to be hospitalized based on their symptoms. After being notified, public health care centers then decide the locations where patients will stay for recovery.
According to the notice, if patients do not need to be hospitalized, they will stay at home, or accommodation facilities prepared by prefectural governments, among other places. The patients can stay home on the condition that they do not go out. The prefectural governments will secure facilities to accommodate such patients, such as municipal training centers, public facilities and hotels.
During their stay for recovery, health workers and relevant others will monitor their health conditions. If their condition worsens, they will be admitted to medical institutions.
The elderly, those who have existing illnesses or who use immune-suppressing drugs, and pregnant women will be hospitalized, just as under the current system, regardless of the level of their symptoms. The notice also seeks for those living with these people to be hospitalized depending on the situation of the number of available beds, or to stay at the designated accommodation facilities.
Previously, all people infected with the virus were required to be hospitalized in principle based on the Infectious Diseases Law. However, some areas have begun facing possible shortages of hospital beds. A government panel of experts pointed out in its March 19 proposal that personnel who can treat patients with severe symptoms should be secured, as should hospital beds. The government decided basic guidelines on March 28 that sought patients with moderate or no symptoms who do not need to be hospitalized to stay at home or other places to recover.
The government intends to include a measure to create a new system to provide subsidies to deal with the viral spread in an emergency economic package to be compiled next week. When prefectural governments prepare accommodation facilities for patients with moderate symptoms, these subsidies are likely to be usable.
At a press conference after a Cabinet meeting on Friday, the health minister, Katsunobu Kato, said: "If patients with moderate symptoms are admitted to hospitals one after another, space will run short. It's necessary to take due care of patients with severe symptoms."
The ministry also announced Friday it has reviewed the criteria for discharging patients infected with the virus. Patients are allowed to leave hospitals after testing negative twice in succession. Previously, conducting two tests took at least 60 hours after a patient's condition improved. But this amount of time has been shortened to 48 hours.
This is in line with guidelines of the World Health Organization. In Japan, a first test is now carried out 24 hours after a patient shows improvement of symptoms and a second test can be conducted more than 24 hours after that.
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