Koike says Tokyo has secured 1,000 beds for virus patients

That oughta do wonders for a city of 40 million people.

Agree, 1000 beds does not sound like mich for a city this size. And I just heard another brilliant idea from Koike: Reduce train service. Which of course makes the rush hour trains more crowded..... yeah, that should help prevent infections!

That oughta do wonders for a city of 40 million people.

@Alfie Noakes

Thanks.

I get a lot of info, and often a chuckle, as is appropriate of a Derek and Clive tribute act, from your posts.

1,000, expect more like bigger numbers.

Are the 1,000 beds for those with mild symptoms ?. Koike is trying hard to score political points after going MIA before decision on olympic was made.

I would use a very long spoon to eat with.

The virus has been openly spreading in Tokyo for 3 months, if there was going to be a mass inundation of pneumonia causes it would have happened by now.

We have 3 months of evidence that this virus is not going to cause mass deaths.

The question of why Tokyo’s hospitals haven’t been inundated like in cities in some European countries is an interesting one but it doesn’t follow that they won’t.

Very strange reasoning.

I am glad Governor Koike is not doing something and also she appears to be going against the Prime Minister or pushing him.

On the other hand I am still disappointed that she waited until the Olympics were postponed to take action.

What she is doing does not make her qualified for PM but may help to salvage her legacy.

Thanks for the 1000 beds. And still you have to beg and plead to even be considered for a test.

they are testing tigers and lions in the Bronx Zoo. Dogs and cats in Hong Kong. Dogs in Belgium.

a nurse who works in the same treatment room as my partner got bad symptoms. She was sent home for self isolation. It took 5 days for her to get tested.

in those 5 days of waiting my partner and I both wrote wills.

luckily she only had seasonal pneumonia.

Thanks for the 1000 beds. And still you have to beg and plead to even be considered for a test.

You're kidding, right?

No, I'm not kidding.

I am not a fan of Koike, quite the opposite in fact. However, on this one issue, at this particular point in time, Koike is doing a better job than Abe.

And I agree that she has grossly mishandled the situation up til now.

Where is Abe? 

He is counting cloth masks to give to needy people, to be distributed at the END OF THE MONTH and maybe some cash payments for the poor after Golden Week. Great leader there...

Ummm.... 1000 beds a day? Because otherwise it doesn't mean much. Or at least, won't in the very near future.

Bruce Chatwin: "It is good to see Governor Koike take the initiative, especially as PM Abe seems to be paralyzed with indecision."

You're kidding, right? This is the same person who said it would be absolutely unacceptable to delay or postpone the Olympics up to a few days before the postponement, and who said there was "no problem" in regards to the virus. And note that whenever she makes a "decision", that is to fob it off on the Central Government. If you said to her right now that if this keeps deteriorating next year's Games might be impossible as well, she'd go right back to downplaying, even taking away the 1000 beds she's bragging about getting today. She is a very big part of why we are in this mess, and is only now beginning to try to cover her butt.

What does it mean ‘to secure a bed’

extremely rich and well connected

No point increasing beds if you haven’t got the staff and PPE. No point having ventilators if you have’t got the single use filters and tubing that are attached to the patient, or the oxygen or the drugs to sedate patients. Look abroad, other countries with the virus are having these issues.

Isn’t the function of securing beds for coronavirus patients  part and parcel simplifying the role of Tokyo Governor, a position correctly if I am wrong that Yuriko Koike occupies.

So please forgive my sarcasm/cynicism, show a big round of applause, and pat on the back for Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike, when emerging from hibernation to actually perform the function Yuriko Koike is elected to do.

How come the hospitals aren’t inundated now from the mass flood of patients we were told were “only a few days away” back in February?

They are:

Japan COVID-19 Coronavirus Tracker

https://covid19japan.com

and 

https://www.stopcovid19.jp/#en

Tokyo bed occupancy **128%**.

How come the hospitals aren’t inundated now from the mass flood of patients we were told were “only a few days away” back in February?

Because this is all just a big hoax?

Abe said he will declare state of emergency today.

Koike is trying to show some leadership which Must be given credits.

however I disagree with some of the above posters maybe too emotional already wanting her as PM.

In the end she’s also a right winger revisionist and even if she separated from the LPD she still share the same revisionist attitude and you expats in Japan don’t believe that if she might become leader of that country you will have an easier life.

I still believe that a woman like Reno or even Edano can give so much for the benefit and social welfare of Japan.

Akie:

Only 1000 beds ? 

Nippon Foundation (日本財団), an NGO, is preparing for 10,000 beds in two places in Tokyo and surrounding area.

https://twitter.com/NipponZaidan/status/1245977459821916161?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Shin-chan looks like he might finally decide to do something:

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will declare a state of emergency over the coronavirus as early as Tuesday, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, as the number of infections topped 1,000 in the capital, Tokyo

https://www.yahoo.com/news/japan-pm-abe-declare-state-231953317.html

Where is Abe? Koike for PM

Gogogo, see previous comments. Yes women can make REALLY bad leaders, take Thatcher for example.

Makeshift units like MASH in Seibu Dome, Ajinomoto stadium, Yoyogi Park, etc. and increase the beds if necessary.

Nice to see SOMEONE in the country being a leader

Dang bong, congratulations, you made me laugh. Koike a leader? The one who just two or three weeks ago said calling off the Olympics was "unthinkable" never mind that no athletes could come or would EVER come and with everyone on LOCKDOWNS. She needs to be thrown on a trash pile. And seriously, a thousand beds for a city of TEN MILLION?? She needs at least a hundred thousand. Sheesh, stupid is ripe with this one!

"The number of cases with untraceable transmission routes has increased in recent days."

The most scary thing is that one, Some affected by this pandemic virus don't want to say or most don't know why. I heard some young guys don't want to say, very selfish or shame behavior. I wonder the increased number of unknown reason are the bills/coins going from one hand to another, to be disinfected, but nobody reckon nobody does. Bed shortages will happen soon when this essential point is ignored.

Stop giving Tokyo are figures only !

National figures only since no lockdown !

Not a big fan of her but at least she is being a little more proactive now the cursed Olympics have been postponed.

Where is Abe?

Man,he really has disappeared.

Perhaps his tummy troubles have resurfaced and he's scouring Tokyo's drugstores for toilet paper.

@BruceChatwin

Very detailed post. I also saw the head of intensive care treatment in Tokyo relate all of those points over the weekend. I think he was also calling for recently retired doctors and nurses to assist in the fight.

Cool! Only Another 4-5,000 more to secure for corona virus patients. Then, they can think about the rest of the people who need hospital care. Ganbette!

@Bruce Chatwin

Many thanks for these posts Bruce. Top work!

ignore the haters.

It's kind of difficult to ignore the haters when they're actually LDP Diet members:

Kimi Onoda:

https://www.reddit.com/r/hapas/comments/fty36m/hafu_ldp_representative_kimi_onoda_born_in/

Mio Sugita:

https://twitter.com/miosugita/status/1246567837268709376

There are more but it's just too depressing. Abe mouthpieces have now turned on the foreign media, too.

we have enough amounts of beds for serious patients

Well, if you say so. I mean, what could the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine possibly know?

There has been an 18.5% increase in the number of COVID patients in serious condition in the past week and a 52% increase in the past two weeks according to the data Toyo Keizai. What numbers are we going to be looking at a week from now? A month from now? It might just be better to have a surplus of supply rather than a shortage.

And how about those 50,000 ventilators?

Given all the social distancing that isn’t happening on the trains right now, we’ll see more infections in one to two weeks.

Where is Abe? Koike for PM!

There are 67,000 cases in NYC alone.

How many are there really in Tokyo?

1,000 beds?

I am not sure as what is going on, but it is hard to believe that Japan has managed to escape this crises, something to be PROUD of for sure.

What I am worried about as most people are is without knowing the extend of the infections and NO testing so far!! this a recipe for disaster. Japan needs to start testing isolating and treating the infected citizens so others can go on with their lives.

Good Luck.

Nice to see SOMEONE in the country being a leader

Koike Prime Minister 2020

1000 beds for 22! In the past few weeks, daily inputs are max. 4-5 patients, a fairly stable figure with no spike. Furthermore, there is also a reduction either by death or by discharge/recovery. So we have enough amounts of beds for serious patients.

Only if the numbers in Tokyo don't soar the same way they have in other places that waited to start social distancing.

Fingers crossed.

Most cases are mild or without symptoms, and they stay at home or designated hotels for quarantine.

Meanwhile severely ill patients need beds, equipment for care. To date there are only 70 in Japan, of whom 22 are in Tokyo.

https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html

1000 beds for 22! In the past few weeks, daily inputs are max. 4-5 patients, a fairly stable figure with no spike. Furthermore, there is also a reduction either by death or by discharge/recovery. So we have enough amounts of beds for serious patients.

Currently, it is estimated that there are about 6,500 ICU beds in Japan, but the number of beds capable of accommodating severely ill patients with new coronavirus infections may be less than 1,000.

As of today, there are only 69 severely ill patients. The number has since long leveled off. Besides ICU beds, 50,000 ventilators are available.

Well then, I guess the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine just does not know of which it speaks. I gave a link to the to Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine site the quote is from. Please provide sources for your information.

BTW

The Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine maintain that there is both a shortage of ECMO ventilators AND the doctors who have the skills necessary to operate them.

NHK reports that Japanese government officials are asking domestic medical-device makers to increase their ventilator production as Japan braces for a possible surge in critically ill patients. Medical experts put the number of ventilators at the country's major medical institutions at more than 22,000 as of February.

The Nikkei quotes the study by the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and notes that Japan has 22,254 ventilators at the 1,558 medical facilities that responded to the (JSICM) poll, of which about 60% were available for use if COVID-19 cases spike. Nikkei also notes that normal ventilators are not enough to help the sickest patients, who need extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, systems that take over for the lungs and add oxygen to the blood outside the body. Patients with severe pneumonia "need to use ECMO machines for weeks at a time, but there aren't many units," a university physician said. The study found that Japan has 1,412 ECMO systems, of which 1,255 were available for use.

https://www.jsicm.org/news/statement200401.html

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200331_16/

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Ventilator-output-ramps-up-as-world-braces-for-patient-surge

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200404/p2a/00m/0dm/020000c

Also I think that Yuriko Koike has took some brave decisions to get these ventilators up and running, I think that she will come out very high in the popularity stakes latter on this year, as for the PM, well I think his days numbered. sorry Abe say you've dithered, dragged your heals, not made any decisive moves, and the one you have done, are worthless. I think that Yuriko Koike should run for the PM's job.

Empty the Tokyo dome, fill it with ventilators, nurses, doctors, beds, the clock is ticking. and dont forget, that some of these doctors and nurses will pay the ultimate price for their devotion to their work.

The virus has been openly spreading in Tokyo for 3 months, if there was going to be a mass inundation of pneumonia causes it would have happened by now.

Hilarious. You went from calling the coronavirus the flu to now focusing on the pneumonia aspect.

Why are you so hell-bent on downplaying this?

What does it mean ‘to secure a bed’ ?

@Bruce

Currently, it is estimated that there are about 6,500 ICU beds in Japan, but the number of beds capable of accommodating severely ill patients with new coronavirus infections may be less than 1,000.

As of today, there are only 69 severely ill patients. The number has since long leveled off. Besides ICU beds, 50,000 ventilators are available.

Burning Bush said "The virus has been openly spreading in Tokyo for 3 months, if there was going to be a mass inundation of pneumonia causes it would have happened by now."

You just figured it out now ? A little bit too late.

Only 1000 beds ? That is really a good news, meaning that there is no crisis in Japan.

Good for her in being proactive, ignore the haters.

It is good to see Governor Koike take the initiative, especially as PM Abe seems to be paralyzed with indecision. However, here is a sobering caution from the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine:

The number of ICU beds in Germany is between 29 and 30 per 100,000 people, whereas in Italy it is around 12. In Germany, most deaths from the new coronavirus infection die in the ICU, whereas in Italy many people die before they get to the ICU. Despite the aging of Japan, the number of ICU beds per 100,000 people in Japan is about 5 beds per 100,000 people. This is less than half the number of beds of Italy, and overshoots in terms of deaths are expected to come very quickly in Japan.

It is important to note that in Japan, ICU is a two-on-one nursing care system. However, in order to treat severe new coronavirus infection patients in the ICU, it is necessary to treat one patient from the viewpoint of infection protection. That means you need two nurses. This means that the eight-bed ICU will be full at manpower when two patients with the new coronavirus infection are being treated in the ICU and that the ICU will not even be able to accept patients after normal surgery or emergency patients. Intensive care is highly specialized, and inappropriate respiratory management can damage the lungs. However, the problem is that there are few doctors in Japan who can handle respirators for severe pneumonia. More manpower is required for ECMO management. (ECMO is a type of ventilator system that has proven to be very effective in treating COVID symptoms.)

Currently, it is estimated that there are about 6,500 ICU beds in Japan, but the number of beds capable of accommodating severely ill patients with new coronavirus infections may be less than 1,000. Forcible containment can lead to nosocomial (originating in a hospital) infections due to disrupted infection control, infections of healthcare workers, and physical and mental stress of medical staff engaged in intensive care. It is clear that manpower resources are a major issue, and that it is not just a matter of the number of ventilators.

https://www.jsicm.org/news/statement200401.html