A decrease in hospital bed occupancy rates for novel coronavirus patients has been observed in the government's official tallies after the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry revised their criteria used to make the calculations at the start of this month.
Previously, the tally included not only inpatients currently occupying hospital beds, but also patients who had been assigned a bed but were still at home waiting to be admitted to the hospital.
Under the ministry's new method, only those patients who are currently hospitalized are to be counted.
Following introduction of the new method, there was a sharp drop in the number of prefectures warranting the most severe Stage 4 infection level, defined as having an occupancy rate of 50% or more. As of June 2, 11 prefectures -- including Osaka and Aichi prefectures -- classified as Stage 4, down from 20 prefectures from the previous week.
The hospital bed occupancy rate is one of seven bellwethers that the government uses to assess strain on the health care system and also a factor considered when deciding to lift a state of emergency. Until May, people who reserved a bed, but were still convalescing at home pending preparations, were being included in that number. As a result of this aggregate approach, the ministry had been unable to obtain a precise read on actual occupancy rates.
Under the new method, the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized nationwide was calculated to be 14,264 (out of 34,943 hospital beds), for an occupancy rate of 41%.
Nine prefectures -- including Fukushima, Gunma and Ishikawa -- were reclassified as Stage 3, the second-most serious infection level, with occupancy rates falling between the 20-49% range.
Yet despite the overall decrease in Stage 4 areas, the healthcare system remains precariously strained in Okinawa Prefecture, with an occupancy rate of 99.7%, or 608 patients out of 610 hospital beds.
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