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Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan has had a system in which moderate cases of infection are treated in a hotel rather than hospital or at home. This is a way of killing two birds by both reducing the burden on medical facilities while also utilizing underused hotels as quarantine zones while travel is restricted.
It’s a system that continues today with Japan trying to push down infections as the Olympic and Paralympic Games rapidly approach.
In fact, on June 19, a young man was hospitalized – or rather “hotelized” – at an APA Hotel in the Higashiumeda area of downtown Osaka. However, it would seem this patient in his 20s wasn’t thrilled with being confined to a hotel for weeks and made a daring escape on June 22.
Nurses generally check in on patients by regular phone calls, but on this day the patient wasn’t answering. When a nurse entered a room at about 1 p.m. he was gone.
▼ A news report on the escape
The man broke the stopper that prevented the window from opening all the way and appeared to have slipped out through there. However, his room was on the sixth floor.
As a precaution, guards are stationed at the entrance and stairwells 24 hours a day, but neither they nor the security cameras in the hotel spotted the patient on his way out. There was no type of scaffolding outside the building either, which means he must have somehow scaled down the side of the building to the ground and fled on foot…all while infected with COVID-19.
Readers of the news were amazed but also terrified that there appears to be a super-powered COVID-19 patient on the loose.
“Sounds like he’s not a serious case…”
“Maybe he went up to the roof and had an accomplice pick him up in a helicopter or VTOL.”
“It’s a real Crazy Climber!”
“This is like the beginning of a season of 24. A bio-terrorist on the loose!”
“COVID ninja.”
“He must have risked his life to escape from the sixth floor, but why? His sister’s wedding? A friend was being held hostage?”
“He’s clearly late to appear in the Olympics.”
“Seal off all of Osaka! He’s too powerful to be allowed out.”
“Maybe he’s a new supervillain who was mutated by a vaccine.”
“Man, this is how zombie movies start.”
As of this writing, the patient’s whereabouts are still unknown. Health officials are currently trying to locate the patient and are considering filing a missing person report with the police if they haven’t already.
Sources: The Sankei News, Kansai TV, Hachima Kiko
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Toyama Prefectural University able to locate potential COVID-19 clusters from raw sewage
-- Student takes mechanical pencil lead to the groin in a possible attempt to skip exam
-- COVID-19 appears to be suppressing the flu in Japan, number of cases down and decreasing
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2021/06/24/search-is-on-for-covid-19-patient-who-escaped-out-a-sixth-floor-window-of-osaka-hotel/
22 Comments
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anon99999
Panic for one escaped person from quarantine, but no problem the thousands or whatever of infected people walking around freely because Japan restricts doing covid tests and doesn’t do contact tracing in most situations
gakinotsukai
This system does magic with numbers when you only count infected people in hospital ...
Mr Kipling
More likely he simply walk down the stairs when the "highly paid and alert" guard men were not paying attention.
nandakandamanda
Found it. In Japanese. He had been arrested for amphetamine usage, tested positive, and (temporarily) released for hotel quarantine.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/kansai-news/20210624/2000047584.html
患者は覚醒剤に関係して警察に逮捕されたあと感染が分かり、釈放されて、そのままホテルに移動していたことが分かりました。
保健所からの届け出を受け、警察が行方を捜しています。
CarlosTakanakana
Have they checked the water tank on the roof?
nandakandamanda
@MrK. Agreed. He probably broke the window lock as a ruse.
lolozo79
I can confirm. I can see the entrance to this APA Hotel from my veranda. It is literally 100 meters from where I live. There is no security to speak of.
GBR48
Imprisoning people in hotels just to direct public money to the sector is not something other nations have done. Everyone else self-isolates at home.
Who would volunteer for a test if that was a possible result? No wonder Japanese case numbers have been so low.
nandakandamanda
I read somewhere that this guy was also on the lam from police custody, but the article makes no mention of this. Hmmm...
englisc aspyrgend
:) well that’s my morning chuckle!
Tend to agree, one of many thousands, not going to make a great deal of difference.
albaleo
I hope they checked under the bed.
CarlosTakanakana
I would try to escape APA Hotel as well. I hope the guy didn't fall.
Kurukuru
WTFJ???
shogun36
So he's on drugs AND has COVID-19?
Shoot to kill. It's pretty simple.
What use is this person on society? Not much I can imagine.
William Bjornson
Have they checked the air shafts for a body? He may be one of those crazy Russians who have no fear of, or maybe do not fully understand, Gravity. Let's see what the 'price of freedom' becomes when they nab this ghost...
Danielsan
He must have needed more amphetamines, otherwise why would he escape from a luxury hotel?
Those in charge of his treatment should have realized that an addict desperate in withdrawals would do anything for a fix, and supplied him with high quality pharmaceutical grade amphetamines to keep him under control.
Sven Asai
Doesn’t play any role when importing tens of thousands delta plus virus bearers for the ‘games’. Let him run, he is healthier than what comes into the country in masses.
Sindhoor GK
Man... why are these kind of men always in Osaka?