Woman with COVID-19 loses baby after being forced to give birth prematurely at home

Disgusting. COVID is not an acceptable reason for turning away a pregnant woman who needs medical care for her baby.

Shameful.

So many people think the Japanese health care system is great. It's really not at all. If this were the U.S. she'd have been in a hospital right away and that baby would have had a better chance. Perhaps Japan needs to let more hospitals treat covid.

sad on so many levels - RIP for the baby. Hope the mother recovers - both physically and mentally from this trauma.

The poor woman, what must have been going through her mind to suffer alone and then heartbreakingly lose her baby. The hospital system has clearly crashed and burned if they couldn’t admit a heavily pregnant woman into any hospital. Disgusting this by the government and medical institutions.

I hope she gets the help she needs to overcome this heartbreaking tragedy and as for the little one…..rest in peace.

"Man-made disaster" by incompetent and self-righteous PM who prioritizes something except preventing infection.

has further shed light on how hospitals are under strain due to the explosive spread of COVID-19 in the country

Is it really fair to describe this situation as ‘under strain’?

We just had a baby a few weeks ago and the threat of COVID made it very stressful. We basically had to isolate ourselves for the last two months.

This is such a terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the mother

Stupid bureaucratic red tape! This should never have happened in any country let alone a developed one!

Shameless! The owners of any hospital that refused her should be named and shamed!

RIP

repeated attempts by the authorities for her to be hospitalized were unsuccessful.

They just let mother and baby life in that kind of danger?

The Japanese hospitals were in a bad way long before Covid.

Japanese medical service is outdated.

To many private hospitals.

Refusing patients in critical conditions should not be possible.

COVID19 is getting a term to use for excuses.

Japan has many catching up to do.

Chiba Gov Toshihito Kumagai said at a press conference Thursday that he takes the situation "very seriously," adding, "we will consider what kind of support we can provide in cooperation with maternity hospitals and others."

We can all rest assured, the govenor has entered the consideration phase. Meanwhile, a young woman and her child... It is not like any other things have been prioritized by the government for the past 1.8 years now has it?

Hell, we pay such expensive health insurance and the level of health care here is like a developing country. Yet we have so many top experts, professional health professionals and relatively good equipment, but on the other hand people are being asked to stay at home with COVID-19. Then the child of a woman who was unable to get the care she needed in time dies because of the incompetence of this government and the inaction it has shown for a year and a half. And yet one of the easiest solutions would be simple - let's do like in other countries, let's transform temporarily less busy wards in the hospital into wards treating patients with COVID-19. It isn't impossible. It is possible, as has been shown in many countries, e.g. Italy, the Czech Republic, etc.

This is such a tragedy for the parents and it makes me really angry.

Believe it or not COVID is not the only reason this happens. It has been happening for decades. My advice is; call a taxi not an ambulance. once at a hospital, they can't refuse you. If you call an ambulance you'll sit in it until they find a hospital that will accept you. Speak from first hand experience. I once called an ambulance around midnight. Luckily it wasn't life threatening (major back problems/unable to walk) cause they sat in front of my house for almost 3 hours trying for find a hospital that would take me. The next time I needed a hospital after hours I took a taxi. They were pissed off but couldn't refuse me.

Japan becoming barbaric

In any crisis, there is an unwritten rule, women and children first. Just another symptom that Japan still doesn't know how to protect its future; a country that cannot protect their women and children will not last long.

This is looking far to familiar a real Déjà vu for me.

Back home a little over 30 some odd year ago as a paramedic we had a similar problem of having to contact individual hospitals to get them to accept patients.

Finally the first responders had enough if after 2 calls we couldn't find a hospital willing to take our patient we just headed to the nearest appropriate emergency room and went in anyway not giving them any choice.

This action finally lead the government to establish a central dispatch system that decided if a hospital could refuse receiving someone.

Emergency room closures became a rarety soon after as they had to have a very clear reason to close to ambulances and the central dispatch had final say.

Maybe now after this mess the Japanese government or at least the Major municipalities will implement a similar system.

20 year ago in Tokyo my son was hit by a car, I had time to get to the location it happened get in the ambulance and sit there for another 20 minutes while the ambulance personnel called around trying to find a hospital willing to accept him.

I finally lost my temper and told the driver to head to a certain hospital and if he didn't I would toss him out and drive there myself, so they did.

When we got there the doctors were not busy, they had plenty of empty beds but they still tried to refuse, I brought my son in put him on a bed and told the staff to do their job.

If this is what it takes to change the system then anyone needing medical attention or with a family member needing attention needs to start doing the same or nothing will change.

Take a taxi, force the ambulance personnel, do whatever you can but don't let them get away with saying no!

"we will consider what kind of support we can provide in cooperation with maternity hospitals and others."

What competence does it need to say that ?

RIP although we don't know all the details.

Onz thing for sure, trauma of suffering will never leave her. I wish her best recovery but do not feel confident about her emotional state.

If I had been the father I would walked with her in my arms to a doctor before.

I did confront a doctor who wanted to hasten the delivery of my son for no reason outside a day longer than scheduled in Japan, but not from my country.

Adaptation to your environment is key.

RIP to this angel murdered by Japanese stupid and useless system :(

all my thoughs to this mother to through this loss.

Antiquesaving

I think this poor woman’s baby died BECAUSE of the strict red tape protocol generated by Covid fear. And the “not enough beds” song constantly repeated because of overly strict Covid protocol.

As above, if you have access to a car /taxi just go to the nearest hospital. Call an Ambulance and it’s a comedy of them ringing hospitals and apologizing for doing so. It’s definitely a wacky system that doesn’t work. Even before the virus several women have either died in the ambulance or their child has. It’s stupid.

Why doesn't Japan build new hospitals? Why doesn't Japan build temporary hospitals due to COVID? Why are hospitals legally able to turn people away? In other countries this would not happen since the year is 2021 and not 1600. WTF?

For all the posters constantly harping on about the “low death rate” of Covid and how it’s absolutely no problem except for old people and the obese: What do you have to say now?

As I’ve written several times before, having an overwhelmed medical system will cause people to die, many of whom don’t even have Covid. My dad passed away in January because he couldn’t get timely medical care for another condition. He had to wait months in between appointments, and his disease progressed too fast for him to get on the waiting list for an organ transplant.

Shame on the hospitals for refusing to treat this woman, and shame on the posters who talk about going out and about as if life were totally normal now. Wear a mask, get vaccinated (when you can), and stay home, for god’s sake. Your actions affect much more than just you.

We are 2 years into this disaster COVID-19 and still almost all private hospital are unwilling to help, or even get prepared to handle these cases. This is a failure on the government behalf for not ordering these hospitals to STEP UP to the task and share the responsibilities, or STOP all public funding to these hospitals.

I am hoping that the general public will remember which hospital did NOT cooperate and stop visiting them, so they can feel the pressure and start helping.

memoryfixToday  08:04 am JST

Antiquesaving

I think this poor woman’s baby died BECAUSE of the strict red tape protocol generated by Covid fear. And the “not enough beds” song constantly repeated because of overly strict Covid protocol.

I have no doubt that also contributed but read what I wrote that was long before covid and not the only example.

Several years ago our neighbour ( friend of my wife) 7 months pregnant called and ambulance because of severe abdominal pain.

We went over to help her while the ambulance was on its way.

She was bleeding, the ambulance spent nearly 20 minutes calling hospitals all refusing because she was being seen at a birthing hospital (they usually don't have emergency rooms) and that was far.

In the end another neighbour got her van put the woman inside drove to the nearby university hospital and gave them no choice. ( She was your stereotypical shitamachi obasan construction worker's wife)

The young woman needed emergency surgery the baby was in NICU for over a months.

Had she waited for the ambulance to find a hospital I am not sure if the mother or child would have survived and I base that opinion on my training and years as a paramedic back home!

The system is a mess and Covid is just highlighting the major flaws.

"Medical institutions that can take on a pregnant woman with COVID-19 are limited..."

No, not "CAN take", but "WILL take". Disgusting.

I've said it before jhat being industrialized is not being developed.You can have as many factories as you can but that does not equate to being a developed nation.There're snd many countries that do not have the same number of factories but have much happier societies.This woman and her baby should have been saved but instead they denied her help.What kind of society is that?

JimToday  06:57 am JST

sad on so many levels - RIP for the baby. Hope the mother recovers - both physically and mentally from this trauma.

> Kev JamesToday  07:00 am JST

The poor woman, what must have been going through her mind to suffer alone and then heartbreakingly lose her baby. The hospital system has clearly crashed and burned if they couldn’t admit a heavily pregnant woman into any hospital. Disgusting this by the government and medical institutions.

I hope she gets the help she needs to overcome this heartbreaking tragedy and as for the little one…..rest in peace.

What does the Hypocratic Oath mean to these people? This is more like Hypocritical! And yes this is very tragic to say the least. Not to mention the mother herself is sick too.

And this could have been avoided as well. Even with Covid-19 ravaging America this time last year before a vax was found, and with all the violence and strife stirred up by our Fuehrer, my sister was still able to get a recently new surgery consisting of a pancreas and kidney transplant. She had juvenile diabetes for most of her life and because of this surgery she is a diabetic no more. Of course the strictest precautions were pretaken, no visiters allowed whatsoever.

Reading about this makes me very sad. RIP to the baby boy who never had a life to begin with and I gope this woman can find a way to carry on and physically, mentally, psychologically recover from this avoidable tragedy.

I'm sure this extremely unfortunate incident will lead to a lot of meetings where the people involved will be very proactive in blaming anyone but themselves, before deciding on the time of the next meeting, in which they will decide on a strategy, said strategy to be discussed in more detail at the third meeting, the location of which will be voted on in a sub-meeting and the vote ratified by fax.

A preventable tragedy. - “Shameful” - “Disgusting”.

*- “Medical institutions that can take on a pregnant woman with COVID-19 are limited..."*

Japanese “system”(?):

“not "CAN take", but "WILL NOT take".

“Disgusting.”

O'BrienToday  08:56 am JST

I'm sure this extremely unfortunate incident will lead to a lot of meetings where the people involved will be very proactive in blaming anyone but themselves, before deciding on the time of the next meeting, in which they will decide on a strategy, said strategy to be discussed in more detail at the third meeting, the location of which will be voted on in a sub-meeting and the vote ratified by fax.

I'm sure they will all hold a conference and debate this over. And nothing will come from it either.

Absolutely tragic.

I'm fed up of saying this but where is all the planning? This isn't a situation that has come as a complete surprise. 18+ months of evidence all around the world of what happens when infection rates increase, and hospitals get more stretched. There is absolutely no excuse for things like this happening.

No one's head is going to roll over this one. With so many hospitals involved, you can't fire all the heads. This kid's death will be in vain.

@ Michael Machida. Why doesn't Japan build new hospitals? Why doesn't Japan build temporary hospitals due to COVID? Why are hospitals legally able to turn people away? Why keep voting for incompetent JGov. Why not ASK questions.

Michael MachidaToday  08:18 am JST

Why doesn't Japan build new hospitals? Why doesn't Japan build temporary hospitals due to COVID? Why are hospitals legally able to turn people away? In other countries this would not happen since the year is 2021 and not 1600. WTF?

Number of hospitals is not the problem. It's the number of doctors willing to work on holidays/weekends and after 6pm. They want to work bankers hours.

How utterly abhorrent. Hospitals should not be allowed to refuse people in dire need of help. I don't understand how this keeps happening in Japan. I myself had an absolutely horrible experience with calling an ambulance and trying to get admitted for severe abdominal pain. I was bleeding blood into the toilet, dehydrated, and so close to passing out from pain and exhaustion but not only did the "paramedics" make me walk down the stairs unescorted but i ended up curled up in a fetal position on the stretcher in the ambulance for over an hour waiting for a hospital to admit me.... Because I lacked Japanese skills. Forget the fact that I possibly had internal bleeding, hospitals refused me due to my lack of Japanese. How is that even legal? Do doctors here not swear to uphold and abide by the Hippocratic Oath before they take on the job? The Japanese medical system needs a serious overhaul.

I feel sad... reading this :(

KentarogaijinToday  10:12 am JST

An unfortunate event that should not have happened.. Although because only for this this we cannot judge the entire health system of Japan that is still very good and better than most countries, even better than the health system countries of the whiners that are criticizing here..

If you as foreigner does not like the health system here, you know what to do...

Ah Ken which his usual "don't like it leave"!

Well what about my children, my wife, her mother, sister, etc...

All but my "pure" Japanese with the exception of my children who of course aren't "pure".

Should they also leave?

Because none like the present system, not even my mother in law who work in the health care system.

This one situation?

Really and what about all the rest?

Hospitals refusing patients has been a recurring theme in Japan for the 30 years I've been here.

Medical institutions that can take on a pregnant woman with COVID-19 are limited due to more complications related to preventing the virus from spreading within the hospital.

It's just the COVID hysteria all over again that cost the life of a baby. She does not have the plague for the sake of rationality. Of course it was safe to bring her to any general hospital or maternity hospital with a the adequate protective measures which really are not rocket science difficult. Tired to hear in these countries, Japan and others, people hiding behind the COVID to justify systemic failures of their health system.

Quote from above: "A pregnant woman in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, who had tested positive for the coronavirus lost her baby after she was forced to give birth prematurely at home as she was unable to find a hospital that would admit her, local authorities said Thursday." This happened not because Japan is primitive but because the medical system is petty capitalistic.

Eighty-percent of hospitals in Japan are privately owned mom and pop affairs. These mom and pop affairs are great in fixing blood noses but, like Japan as a whole, are useless in crisis like the one we are having now.

There are the big public hospitals but you need an "in" to get in. Even when you are in you need an in to get to a new division. A lot depends on who know, on friendship and on power. If it sounds like feudalism that is because it is feudalism.

It also depends on where you live. The idea is good hospitals and moderately low population. Overcrowded Tokyo and Chiba are not great places to become seriously.

HBJ 09:16 am JST

Absolutely tragic.

I'm fed up of saying this but where is all the planning? This isn't a situation that has come as a complete surprise. 18+ months of evidence all around the world of what happens when infection rates increase, and hospitals get more stretched. There is absolutely no excuse for things like this happening.

All the LDP politicians care about is avoiding responsibility, blaming someone else and winning the next election. There's no planning and no system because they don't care about anything except money and the next election.

They had plenty of time to prepare their costumes for that Showa fascism performance at Yasukuni this week, though.

Tragic, but did she have hospital arrangements ahead of time and still get refused? Japanese hospitals are known for turning people away regardless of COVID. You need to choose a hospital as soon as you get pregnant and stick with it.

All the LDP politicians care about is avoiding responsibility, blaming someone else and winning the next election. There's no planning and no system because they don't care about anything except money and the next election.

Digging a bit further, the obvious (yet rhetorical) question is "why?"

The answer, obviously, is that they know that their chance of winning the next election is very close to absolute.

So this can also, indirectly at least, be laid at the feet of the people who just keep on voting for them come hell or high water.

This is ridiculous, hospitals turning away patients. especially life and death situations

I would have drove the women to the nearest large hospital and demanded they help her, if not then she can deliver in the waiting room, see if they F help then!!

the scene of people struggling for life for all to see wakes people up really quickly

therougouToday  10:57 am JST

Tragic, but did she have hospital arrangements ahead of time and still get refused? Japanese hospitals are known for turning people away regardless of COVID. You need to choose a hospital as soon as you get pregnant and stick with it.

Nice Segway into victim blaming.

If you know Japan as well as you claim then you know that 90% of Maternity hospitals will not accept "high risk" and a patient with covid is not only high risk to the patient but also to other patients.

Not only that half the maternity hospitals aren't even equipped for anything more than natural birth.

But I am sure you knew that.

A pregnant woman that starts to give birth under 36 weeks in Japan using one of these maternity hospitals ( and most do) will be turned away because the hospitals rarely have an NICU for premature babies.

So the "Stick with it" goes out the window the instant the slightest problem arises!

I know been there done that and I know plenty of others that have ended up without a hospital willing to accept them and this has been going on for the 30 plus years i have been here.

This is Asia.

Japan will always be an Asian country.

Don't expect ethics and morals from them.

Blast! Last sentence probably should read: "Overcrowded Okyo and Chiba are not great places to become pregnant."

you feel so justified in this notion that you all are willing to allow a baby to die for the sake of your health from a virus with a 99.7% survival rate

seriously stop with the lies you clearly dont know what youre talking about.

this 99.7% survival rate is pure BS, the actual figure is about 99.2% survival if youre vaccinated.

if your not vaccinated and get covid then the survival rate is about 98% with high change of longer term health effects.

600 times more likely to dye from covid unvaccinated compared to vaccinated people. the longer this pandemic continue the more people will be infected the higher the change the virus will mutate into more dangerous strains, which is what is clearly happening now. dont take my world for it,

go out unmasked to restaurant crowded areas, see if your 99.7% rate holds up. goodluck

The whole reason this woman was turned away is because hospitals are full of covid patients

This is exactly why pregnant people should have been on the medical priority list for vaccines. If she was vaccinated back in May, maybe she wouldn't have been infected. Of course, the vaccines aren't a guarantee, especially considering how bad Delta is, but it would reduce her chances a lot! And, then maybe she would have had 1 medical emergency instead of 2. And for a country that does a lot of hand-wringing about their birth rate, I really can't understand why pregnant people weren't included on the medical priority list. This illogical, lack of foresight thinking is just inexcusable and should be criminal at this point. COVID has been around for a while, they should be more prepared by now.

Absolutely disgusting!

Unforgivable. Lame government policies.

Survival rate 99% and they don't help her? The infatuation with COVID is pathetic.

Sorry to hear. My was born at home. It can be done. Something went wrong. Sad.

Congratulations suga, you got your olympics and this is a direct cause of the increased numbers from your government’s lack of care, a baby died so the ioc cash cow could go ahead..

Japan seems relatively useless in emergency situations.

This makes you wonder about the real number of all those unreported COVID deaths in Japan. This one only made the news because an infant was involved.

Japanese health system is only rated high because the criteria for evaluation include aspects such as economic efficiency and profitability, thanks to Koizumi’ 2000s reforms towards “free market”. Lombardy in Italy was rated as a EU excellency for the same reasons, with extreme liberalization of the health ‘market’, and was the theater of probably the biggest failure in reacting to the pandemic (although also one of the first to have to deal with it massively).

It’s not like the government doesn’t know: from Bloomberg in February, “as the pandemic progressed, the system’s strengths worked against it, showing how a preponderance of private hospitals geared towards general and preventative care lacks the flexibility to respond quickly. Crucial weaknesses, like a lack of doctors compared to the number of hospital beds, were also accentuated.

“To have the medical system break down like this, we really did not expect it and we have to reflect on it,” Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said in a Jan. 15 interview with Bloomberg. In the future, the community medical care programs in Japan would need to have a strategy for pandemic response, he said.

Seems August is not yet the future, and they need to reflect more on it.

Forgot the link when I quoted yesterday on another tread.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14421133

The same national government which was against putting people with moderate symptom in hospital if not judged at risk is already playing innocent and throwing the blame at the local government :

Asked about the newborn’s death, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference on Aug. 19 that the government is asking prefectural governments to build a system to swiftly accept COVID-19 patients into hospitals.

“We will urge them again to take concrete measures on reinforcing the patient transport and hospitalization systems,” he said. “The government will offer necessary support.”

Regarding their non hospitalization plan, they backpedaled a bit :

The government had initially sought to limit hospitalizations to "severe cases or those at risk of becoming severe." The revised document, however, states that beds should be provided to "those with moderate symptoms who also require oxygenation, or if they do not, those at risk of developing severe illness,"

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210806/p2a/00m/0na/032000c

~=~=~

I agree about the fact of there is an overall problem with medical system and it need serious reform.

Quite a sad news.

This is gonna destroy Japan's birthrate even more.

This is Japan ….

Always the same problem about hospital emergency. What do you expect here ? Even Mobile Urgent Medical Aid and Resuscitation Service doesn’t exist. Ambulances are without doctors. I guess taxi is safer because faster.

Very sad. Surely there are other people currently in hospital in Japan with various contagious diseases so it seems very unfair that she couldn't help. Does it mean there are no emergency rooms for people who are Covid positive in Japan? There must be other pregnant women in Japan who are Covid positive too. Having said that, 29 weeks is pretty early to go into labor. Covid certainly seems to go for the weaker and vulnerable people. Not a nice thought but it almost seems like Covid exists to try to kill those who have health issues and/or are immunocompromised (including babies born prematurely) and/or are elderly.

The woman gave birth to a boy around 5:15 p.m., but it took more than 45 minutes for emergency services to transport her and the baby to a hospital, where the newborn was pronounced dead.

That is criminal. Now the government is murdering babies because of this stupid Corona scare.

Disgusting.Japanese government is always age-friendly but they don't spent money and time for the next generation.

How could something like this happens in a country as advanced as Japan?

How could something like this happens in a country as advanced as Japan?

Japan has a serious demographic issue. The fact that there are so many old people means they are quite vulnerable. But why can't they keep one bed vacant for situations like this? The young are the life blood of a country.

Seesaw

How could something like this happens in a country as advanced as Japan?

Alas, this sort of thing is exactly what can happen easily in Japan. Follow protocol blindly, without any common sense and individual decision. Remember the recent anniversary of the JAL crash in Nagano? The rescue operation was botched for precisely that reason.

Disgraceful, disgusting, disturbing.

Here in the UK 80% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

It is only the younger segments of the population which have not.

A pregnant woman in labour refused service by hospital?

How can this happen in Japan?

In the UK, if the same thing happened, it would be a major scandal.

But Japan is not a first world country.

This example shows that the system is truly broken…

Numan

This makes you wonder about the real number of all those unreported COVID deaths in Japan. This one only made the news because an infant was involved.

But this was not a "COVID death". This was an unnecessary death caused by stupid COVID rules.

This is exactly why pregnant people should have been on the medical priority list for vaccines. If she was vaccinated back in May, maybe she wouldn't have been infected.

Depends on the stage of pregnancy. There are reports of significantly increased incidence of miscarriage when vaccine is administered in the first trimester.

Let’s see how this gets reported in the Japanese press and on the wide shows.

I'm hoping there are serious calls for reform.

This is an absolute outrage.

I’m curious. Where else in the world can you be refused to be admitted to the hospital in an emergency even if you have insurance?

If Japan wants to be seen as a first-world class nation, it's time they got themselves a National Health Service......forget about stupid vanity-projects like collecting soil from Mars, look after the people first. They should use their vast wealth ensuring that free healthcare is made available to all, regardless of income.

The Chinese managed to build dozens of 10-storey temporary hospitals in a matter of weeks - what measures were the J-Government 'considering and convening meetings to assimilate responses' actually doing during this time ? You got it, a big fat Zero.

In my view, the Japanese people should rise above their timid mindsets and start making loud-and-clear demands of their lawmakers; I'm sure this is where their attitude of 'Sorry, can't do' instead of 'let's do' comes from. Sad really, as Japan is such a great country in so many other ways.....

This is a disgrace, hospitals should be prepared for this situation. Not a new problem is it? Shameful

Depends on the stage of pregnancy. There are reports of significantly increased incidence of miscarriage when vaccine is administered in the first trimester.

This is false information, up until now there is no increase associated with the vaccine when compared with non-vaccinated people.

On the other hand death rates are increase more than 20 times on patients infected with COVID when compared with non-infected ones.

https://www.insider.com/pregnant-people-may-have-fewer-side-effects-from-covid-vaccine-2021-8

https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/952009?src=wnl_tpal_210603_mscpedu&impID=3418057

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-pregnancy-higher-risks/

Scientists did not find an increased risk for miscarriage" among people who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines before 20 weeks of pregnancy, the CDC said. It also said available data showed no additional risk to people vaccinated later in pregnancy or to their babies. 

It is morally unacceptable to mislead people into taking a much higher risk using false information.

the other perspective is that she was vaccinated, the complications with the baby were due side effects from the vaccine and the fact she caught coronavirus was because her body was producing spike proteins on it's own...

The available evidence makes obvious this explanation makes no sense, COVID is the one that is correlated with problems during pregnancy, and vaccination reduces these increased risks both for the mother and the baby.

despite what fact-checkers insist, the VAERS database shows miscarriages are on the rise due to the vaccination. 

The fact checkers have the evidence to prove this is not the case, you on the other side only have your own beliefs, that is not a believable argument, this supposed increase of risk has been completely debunked, you saying the opposite simply carry no weight.

Unbelievable!

The government have failed utterly throughout the pandemic yet wasted time, effort and resources on a glorified school sports day to the financial benefit of no one save the IOC.

A major portion of blame I also lies at the feet of the private healthcare sector in Japan, their total inadequacy at the start of the pandemic was bad enough but 18 months in and they have made no effort to upgrade their facilities because it might cost money island it’s more profitable to turn the sick away to die than treat expensive cases is both despicable and unconscionable. They need nationalising and rationalising in to an effective, comprehensive healthcare system for the population instead of a profit centre parasitism off of the sick!

Ruddy predictive text, islands = and!

Parasitism = parasiting.

Japan's systems are designed to support those in government and big businesses, especially those affiliated with 'ahem' government projects and 'amakudari'.

According to the news, Chiba had one bed for pregnant covid-positive women, but unfortunately, there were two were 2 patients.

don’t worry though, Chiba has allocated ONE more bed, which will be available next week.

so grim.

Tuesday's incident involving the woman in her 30s, who was 29 weeks pregnant and had moderate symptoms of COVID-19, has further shed light on how hospitals are under strain due to the explosive spread of COVID-19 in the country, as repeated attempts by the authorities for her to be hospitalized were unsuccessful.

Under strain my big toe, we have been hearing this sorry excuse from the begining of the pandemic

even when cases numbered 100.

What a shame, if this could happened to a pregnant woment, you can just imagine what is happening to

those infected and told to stay at home. They were were showing us S.K, New York , Italy but cannot even handle one-tenth of the cases those places handled during their peak. What a shame.

A soldier refusing to go to war for fear of being killed.