With the ban on entry to Japan to be expanded on Friday to 73 countries and regions, including the United States and Britain, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, people returning from those places must be quarantined.
Airport quarantine stations across Japan are on the verge of a crisis as staff are overloaded with the need to secure areas to keep travelers who are waiting for test results and sending people on to medical institutions, on top of regular quarantine inspections.
The latest measure to expand areas subject to the ban will cover returnees from the United States and all parts of China, with further confusion and congestion expected. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is considering increasing the number of inspection devices and outsourcing quarantine inspections to the private sector.
"Even after we got support, we still don't have enough staff. We've never experienced this," a Narita Airport quarantine employee said on March 27.
Airports across the country usually conduct quarantine inspections, including taking temperatures and asking passengers if they have any symptoms. After the coronavirus outbreak, however, all passengers returning from the countries and regions covered by the Japanese government's entry ban are required by law to be tested for the virus, regardless of whether they have symptoms. The number of people to be tested drastically increased when about 20 countries, including ones in Europe, were added to the list for the entry ban on March 27.
Friday's ban is expected to double the number of people to be tested.
Quarantine offices at major airports, including Narita, Haneda and Kansai airports, check hundreds of people each day. At Narita Airport, employees are engaging in the task with the help of manpower from other quarantine offices near the airport, with about 60 people on the job in all. However, a veteran official said, "It's important to check everyone, but we're worn out."
Meanwhile, some people returning to Japan, who have been forced to stay at the airport for checkups, have expressed dissatisfaction.
The test is given using devices at the airport or at medical institutions outside and takes at least six hours to complete. However, there is a limit to the number of samples that can be processed at one time. Therefore, many people are forced to wait for more than a day.
A man in his 40s who works for a parts manufacturer arrived at Narita Airport with his family from Germany, where he was stationed, on Sunday morning. The quarantine office took their samples, and the man and his family waited for two days until they got the test results -- which were negative -- on Tuesday.
On the first night, the man laid down in a sleeping bag with about 20 or so other travelers at the airport's conference room. He said, "Although we should have avoided crowded spaces, we ended up sleeping in a huddle and that might spread virus among returnees."
In March, a student who arrived at Narita Airport from Spain returned to Okinawa Prefecture without waiting for the test result and was later found to have tested positive.
The health ministry, which is in charge of quarantine operations, plans to increase the amount of inspection equipment, further outsource inspections to private companies, and secure facilities for people who test negative in the inspection to spend time in isolation.
"We will dispatch staff to major airports to strengthen our support," a ministry official said.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
