The hospital in Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, succumbed to a round of coronavirus cases. Tired doctors warned of “system breakdown”, beds and ventilators were almost used up, and advised against the Olympics this summer.

The overwhelming speed of Osaka’s medical system highlights the challenge of hosting an important global sporting event in two months, especially when only about half of Japan’s medical staff have completed vaccination.

“In short, this is the collapse of the medical system,” said Yuji Tohda, director of Osaka University Hospital.

“This Highly contagious British variant Alertness and slippage have led to an explosive increase in the number of patients. “

Japan has avoided the large-scale infections suffered by other countries, but Osaka Prefecture was the first to bear the brunt of the fourth wave, with 3,849 new positive tests performed in the week ending Thursday.

This is an increase of more than five times over the same period three months ago.

Of the 13,770 COVID-19 patients in the county, only 14% are hospitalized, and most of the rest can be taken care of by themselves. In contrast, Tokyo’s latest hospitalization rate is 37%.

A government advisory group believes that a tax rate of less than 25% is considered an incentive to consider imposing a state of emergency.

As of Thursday, 96% of the 348 hospital beds used for severe virus cases in Osaka have been put into use. Officials said this month that since March, 17 people have died from illnesses outside the county hospital.

Dr. Toshiaki Minami, director of the Osaka Medical University Medical University Hospital (OMPUH), said that this mutated virus can even make young people very sick very quickly. Once severely ill, it will be difficult for patients to recover.

“I believe that until now, many young people think they are invincible. But this is not true. Everyone is taking the same risks.”

breaking point

Minami said that a supplier recently told him that stocks of propofol, a key drug used to isolate intubated patients, are very low, while Tohda’s hospital lacks ventilators that are critical for severe COVID-19 patients.

Satsuki Nakayama, head of OMPUH’s nursing department, said that facing the intensive care bed to take care of the intensive care unit caused serious injuries to employees.

She added: “I have some intensive care unit (ICU) staff who say they have reached the tipping point.” “I need to consider staff changes to send staff from other hospitals.”

OMPUH has approximately 500 doctors and 950 nurses working, and the hospital manages 832 beds. Ten of its 16 ICU beds are dedicated to virus patients. Of the approximately 140 severe patients admitted to the hospital, 20 died in the ICU.

The head of the local government employee union, Xiao Song Kang, said that the situation of public health nurses in the local health center is also very bad, and they need to liaise between patients and medical institutions.

“Some of them are working 100, 150, 200 overtime hours, and this situation has been going on for a year… On duty, they sometimes get home at one or two in the morning and go to bed just to be woken up. Three o’clock. Or make a call at four.”

Last month, former Japanese backstroke athlete Aa Terakawa walked through the Osaka Expo 70 Memorial Park with the Olympic torch.No audience due to the pandemic [Kyodo via Reuters]

Medical professionals with first-hand experience of Osaka’s fight against the pandemic have a negative view of the Tokyo Games scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8. The event has been requested to be cancelled Consider the pressure of city hospitals.

Dr. Aksu Takasu, head of emergency medicine at OMPUH, said: “The Olympics should be stopped because we can no longer stop the influx of new variants from England, and the next influx of Indian variants may follow.”

He refers to a Variant first discovered in India After preliminary research, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated it as a target of concern, indicating that it is easier to spread.

“In the Olympics, 70,000 or 80,000 athletes and people will come to this country from all over the world. This may cause another disaster in the summer.”