Aug 17 (Japan Times) - The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to scale down its contact-tracing program for identifying people who may have had close contact with those infected with the new coronavirus.
The metropolitan government last Tuesday notified public health care centers in the capital of the decision.
The move, aimed at reducing health care center workloads amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases, calls for allowing them to focus on helping patients receive appropriate medical care quickly by assessing their conditions and the risks of symptoms becoming serious, metropolitan government officials said.
The notification said that the contact-tracing program, or active epidemiological investigations, should be conducted in an effective and efficient way, targeting medical institutions and facilities for elderly people, who have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms, the officials said.