The speed at which Osaka’s healthcare system was overwhelmed underscores the challenges of hosting a major global sports event in two months’ time, particularly as only about half of Japan’s medical staff have completed inoculations.
‘‘Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system,’’ Yuji Tohda, the director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka, said.
‘‘The highly infectious British variant and slipping alertness have led to this explosive growth in the number of patients.’’
Japan has avoided the large infections suffered by other nations, but the fourth pandemic wave took Osaka prefecture by storm, with 3849 new positive tests in the week to last Thursday, a more than fivefold jump over the corresponding period three months ago.
The variant could make even young people very sick quickly, and once seriously ill, patients found it tough to make a recovery, Toshiaki Minami, director of the Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital (OMPUH), said.
‘‘I believe that until now many young people thought they were invincible.
‘‘But that can’t be the case this time around. Everyone is equally bearing the risk.’’
Medical professionals with firsthand experience of Osaka’s struggle with the pandemic take a negative view on holding the Tokyo Games, due to begin on July 23.
‘‘The Olympics should be stopped, because we already have failed to stop the flow of new variants from England, and next might be an inflow of Indian variants,’’ Akira Takasu, the head of emergency medicine at OMPUH, said.
He was referring to a variant first found in India that the World Health Organisation (WHO) designated as being of concern after initial studies showed it spread more easily.
‘‘In the Olympics, 70,000 or 80,000 athletes and the people will come to this country from around the world.
‘‘This may be a trigger for another disaster in the summer.’’
Japanese tycoon Masayoshi Son warned of significant dangers around holding the Olympics in Tokyo.
In a series of tweets, the SoftBank Group chief executive expressed bewilderment and concern about the Tokyo Olympics, calling Japan a ‘‘vaccine laggard’’, and said the slow inoculation drive less than two months before the start of the Games could put people’s lives at risk.
‘‘Currently, more than 80% of people want the Olympics to be postponed or cancelled. Who and on what authority is it being forced through?’’ the billionaire executive wrote in a Twitter post in Japanese over the weekend.
Son’s tweets followed comments on Friday from IOC vice-president John Coates that the games would ‘‘absolutely’’ go ahead even if Tokyo was under Covid-19 restrictions.
Japan remains under state-of-emergency curbs that have progressively been expanded as a fourth wave of infections rips through the population.
