Commentary: How many times must Japan be urged to step up COVID-19 testing?

Japan’s ultimate target should be to reopen the economy and to carry on normally as before. In other words, Japan must avoid using economic shutdowns as an emergency measure to stop infection.

LISTEN: Retrenchment: What is fair compensation, clear communication and empathy in letting people go?To avoid an economic shutdown, Japan needs to prevent the number of cases from exceeding and overwhelming hospital capacity. Increasing medical capacity will require a plan for bolstering the availability of hospital beds for severe cases, intensive care units and personal protective equipment.

The second category is workers in hospitals, aged care facilities and welfare facilities for the disabled. These workers should be thoroughly tested because infections at these facilities could result in severe and fatal cases.READ: Commentary: The systematic testing Singapore needs to ditch circuit breakers for good

The capacity of COVID-19 tests should exceed or be comparable to these figures because the symptoms of COVID-19 and influenza are generally indistinguishable. During the Tokyo Olympic Games, immigration would potentially need to conduct about 100,000 tests per day, as it was estimated by the Japanese government that 1 million people will enter Japan in the two weeks of the Olympic Games.Considering these numbers, a reasonable target for testing capacity is approximately 100,000 per day by the end of September and 200,000 per day by the end of November.

Source: Financial Digest (financialdigest.net)

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