Japanese health care facilities stretched thin amid surge in coronavirus cases

Japan has nearly 7,000 coronavirus cases and about 100 deaths, but the numbers are growing.

The scene at Narita airport, Japan, on April 8, 2020, where cardboard encampments are placed with social distancing to cater for people who have to wait for the results of a government coronavirus quarantine checks. 

TOKYO: Japanese health care facilities are getting stretched thin amid a surge in coronavirus patients.

The Japanese Association for Acute Medicine and the Japanese Society for Emergency Medicine, representing such professionals, issued a joint statement recently warning about a "collapse of emergency medicine," which may lead to the collapse of medicine overall.

The statement said many hospitals were turning away people rushed by ambulance, including those suffering strokes, heart attacks and external injuries.

Some people who were turned away later turned out to have the coronavirus.

Masks and surgical gowns were running short, the statement said.

Japan has nearly 7,000 coronavirus cases and about 100 deaths, but the numbers are growing.

The government has declared a state of emergency, asking people to stay home.