Tokyo: Japan will revise its assessment criteria of the Covid-19 situation to shift focus to hospital capacity from the number of new infections, local media reported on Monday.
Currently, the situation is classified into four levels which have been used by the central government and prefectural governments in deciding the matched anti-measures, reports Xinhua news agency.
The new system, consisting of five levels, is discussed during a meeting of the government’s subcommittee on the Covid-19 response.
It will incorporate a projection of hospital bed availability and try to forecast in advance whether there may be a serious strain on the medical system if infections resurge.
Economic Revitalization Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa, who is in charge of Covid-19 response, said the government has started to develop new standards which are expected to come out by mid-November.
“Based on today’s discussions, we would like to prepare for a potential resurgence of infections by assuming a worst-case scenario,” Yamagiwa said at the meeting.
Under the new system, alert level 0 refers to a situation of no new cases, while level 1 means the health care system is able to respond to Covid-19 in a stable manner.
Level 2 warns that an increase of infections is beginning to put a strain on the system, level 3 shows a state of emergency is needed, and the most serious level 4 signifies that hospitals are no longer able to deal with Covid-19 patients even if they reduce general medical services.
