TOKYO The Japanese capital, Tokyo, and three nearby prefectures have asked the national government to declare a state of emergency to curtail the surging spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In the name of valuing life, we made this plea together,” said Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike after meeting for three hours on Saturday with the minister in charge of coronavirus measures, along with the governors of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa.
Japan has seen a recent rise in reported cases of COVID-19, especially in urban areas. Tokyo saw a daily record of 1,337 cases on New Year’s Eve.
Worries are growing about hosting the Olympics, set for July, with 11,000 Olympic athletes set to enter Japan, as well as tens of thousands of officials and media.
2021/01/02 18:57 Indians wearing face masks as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus stand in a queue to apply for a health card initiated by West Bengal sta. Indians wearing face masks as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus stand in a queue to apply for a health card initiated by West Bengal state government in Kolkata, India, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Bikas Das) A couple rests while wearing protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus at a waterfront against Victoria Habour in Hong Kong Saturday, Jan.. A couple rests while wearing protective masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus at a waterfront against Victoria Habour in Hong Kong Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
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Emergency healthcare staff at “battle stations” amid the rising number of coronavirus patients are at risk of burnout, a senior medic has warned.
Adrian Boyle, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said people were “tired, frustrated and fed-up”, while Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said the next few weeks would be “nail-bitingly difficult for the NHS”.
Dr Boyle told BBC Breakfast: “What is it going to be like over the next couple of months? I don’t know, I am worried.
“We are very much at battle stations.
“There will be short-term surges of morale but people are tired, frustrated and fed-up, as everybody is, whether they work in hospital or not.
This after a double increase of coronavirus cases during festive season.
The hike is being blamed on a new coronavirus variant that has emerged in the country.
British medics warned on Friday that hospitals around the country face a perilous few weeks amid surging new coronavirus infections that have been blamed on a new variant of the virus.
A day after the United Kingdom posted a record 55 892 new infections and another 964 coronavirus-related deaths, concerns are mounting about the effect on the overstretched National Health Service (NHS).
Field hospitals that were constructed in the early days of the pandemic, but were subsequently mothballed, are being reactivated.