The nationwide total number of recuperating COVID-19 patients has exceeded 200,000, according to statistics from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
As of Wednesday, there were a confirmed 207,672 recuperating patients, of whom 135,859 were convalescing at home, 24,488 were hospitalized and 19,635 staying in hotels or other dedicated facilities. An additional 27,690 also remain at home or elsewhere, as it has yet to be decide whether they should be hospitalized.
The number of such recuperating patients has nearly tripled those in the third wave's peak in January and the fourth wave's peak in May, both of which were around 70,000. The ministry hopes to improve care efforts for patients recuperating at home amid a surge in the number.
Also as of Wednesday, local governments had only secured a total of 39,419 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. Though the number of beds increased about 10% in a span of two months, compared to that logged in July -- the beginning of the fifth wave -- it has not caught up with the increasing number of newly confirmed infected people.
The number of people infected yet recuperating at home surged 34 times to the 4,001 logged as of July 7.
To handle this rapidly increasing number, the ministry asked local governments nationwide on Thursday to strengthen health monitoring duties carried out by medical professionals.
These duties should begin on the day local public health centers conclude that an infected person should recuperate at home. There have, however, been cases of these start dates being delayed due to a personnel shortage in the public health centers.
Therefore, the health ministry believes that before the health centers can begin the duties, it has no choice but to rely on the doctors and nurses at the hospitals or clinics where the patients are seen. The ministry has been recommending to local governments that these medical professionals continue to directly check patients for fever and other symptoms.
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