A medical worker conducts a simulation for a walk-in style polymerase chain reaction test for the coronavirus disease , at a makeshift facility in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan, April 23, 2020. REUTERS/Issei KatoTOKYO: Japan's plan to more than triple its coronavirus testing is unlikely to improve its fight against the outbreak without an overhaul in the test approval process, which has kept daily coronavirus-testing well below capacity, experts say.
Patients wanting to be tested must go through telephone consultations, demonstrate they have symptoms or show they have been in touch with an infected person. Health ministry authorities must then approve the test and have in some cases refused to authorise them. Abe's pledge would mark a sharp rise from Japan's current capacity of about 52,000 polymerase chain reaction tests and 8,000 antigen tests a day.
"Rather than 200,000 tests a day, I think it's more important that each municipality has a system that allows doctors to perform the tests they consider necessary," said Koji Wada, professor of public health at the International University of Health and Welfare in Tokyo.
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