At least 15,058 people were on waiting lists for a hospital or a designated accommodations after testing positive for the novel coronavirus earlier this month in the 11 prefectures covered by a state of emergency, a Kyodo News survey found, as public health centers have been swamped with a surge in cases cases.

A growing number of patients on waiting lists have died at home.

The number as of last Tuesday marks a sharp increase from a month earlier, including in Tokyo, where it almost quintupled. Local public health centers are tasked with arranging hospitalization or accommodation for people infected with the virus.

But as the number of newly infected people has been rising sharply since November, the arrangement has been taking longer, and more infected people have been forced to wait at home amid bed shortages — with some dying at home.

The survey showed that Tokyo had the most infected people waiting to be hospitalized or accommodated at other facilities among the 11 prefectures, jumping 4.8 times from 1,563 as of Dec. 19 to 7,539. Hyogo Prefecture has seen its number increase 5.8 times to 727 people.