Japan ready to deploy medical staff from SDF as coronavirus situation worsens

Japan is prepared to deploy medical staff from national Armed forces to regions where the epidemiological situation is particularly difficult, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters on December 7. "The Osaka and Hokkaido administrations are considering sending such requests. As soon as there are requests, we will be ready for deployment immediately," Kato added. The announcement comes as coronavirus caseload in the country mounted to 162,917 with 2,259 fatalities in the Japanese territory.

Earlier in the day, Osaka Governor Yoshimura Hirofumi had sent a request to the country’s defence minister Nobuo Kishi to deploy medical personnel from Self Defence Forces (SDF) to treat severely infected COVID-19 patients at a new health facility. Last week, the prefecture had raised a red flag as hospital beds occupancy topped 60 per cent. While cases in Osaka continue to swell, Governor Hirofumi has asked residents to refrain from stepping out for at least 12 days, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Meanwhile, Kato confirmed that the government was preparing to send SDF nurses to the city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido, to help the health staff of local hospitals to tackle the coronavirus clusters. He added that the prefecture was witnessing coronavirus infection clusters at two prime hospitals. Hokkaido has reported 2,237 cases of coronavirus while a total of 7,546 people have already recovered as per data by the prefecture's government. 

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Free vaccines

While caseload in Japan is spiralling, country's parliament on December 2 approved the bill to provide free COVID-19 vaccination to its 126 million people. The bill received the approval of the upper house of the parliament after being passed in the powerful lower house. The bill will make the local authorities of Japan responsible for managing the immunisations across prefectures. 

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Image: AP