Aug 10 (NHK) - NHK has learned that an emergency coronavirus patient in Tokyo was rejected by about 120 medical institutions amid a recent surge in new cases.
As of Monday, more than 17,000 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus were recuperating at home. That's 11.4 times higher than a month ago.
A Tokyo resident in his 50s tested positive after he developed a fever earlier this month. He was recuperating at home, but two days later began showing serious symptoms such as breathing problems and needed to be admitted to a hospital.
It took paramedics more than five hours to find a hospital willing to accept the patient, after being rejected by about 120 institutions. He was taken to the Nippon Medical School Hospital in Tokyo.
The hospital provides emergency care for seriously-ill coronavirus patients. But staff at the hospital say beds are usually full and they have had to turn down requests from paramedics and other institutions.
Yokobori Shoji, who heads the critical care center at the university hospital, said beds for severe patients are almost always occupied, and he has never seen so many requests for hospitalization.
He said that unless new infections decrease, they may not be able to save patients whom they normally could.
