Japanese Media Criticizes COVID-19 Testing Failures... "One-Tenth of Korea's"

Naomichi Suzuki, Governor of Hokkaido, Japan (right), declared on the 28th that the COVID-19 situation in Hokkaido is becoming serious and that they will respond with a state of emergency until March 19. Source=Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Japanese media criticized the government's inadequate novel coronavirus (COVID-19) testing system. Although the number of COVID-19 cases in Japan is about one-fourth that of Korea, it was pointed out that this is because the number of tests conducted is only one-tenth.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the 2nd that while the Japanese government explains that 3,800 tests can be conducted daily, the actual number of tests is an average of 900 per day, which is only one-fourth of the testing capacity.

Currently in Japan, if a doctor who examines a patient judges that a COVID-19 test is necessary, they contact the public health center, and the public health center requests testing from local public health laboratories, which is how COVID-19 testing is conducted.

However, Nihon Keizai Shimbun also reported that there are cases where doctors' requests for COVID-19 tests are rejected. The Japan Medical Association has decided to investigate whether there are inappropriate rejections.

Nihon Keizai Shimbun pointed out that there is also a problem with the insufficient testing system. After the 2009 novel influenza outbreak, Japan promoted strengthening the testing system of local public health laboratories, and as a result, testing equipment increased. However, cooperation beyond the prefectural level is insufficient, so testing equipment is not being fully utilized.

As a result, Nihon Keizai Shimbun pointed out that Korea conducted COVID-19 tests on about 94,000 people by the 29th of last month, whereas Japan tested only about 7,000 people.

Japanese private broadcaster TBS also reported in a morning news program that although the number of COVID-19 cases announced by the Korean government is 3,736, which is four times that of Japan (946), some voices say this difference is due to the different testing systems.

Japan’s actual maximum daily testing number is 1,594 tests (February 21), despite being able to test 3,830 tests per day, while Korea’s maximum daily testing number is 14,753 tests (February 29), which is ten times higher.

TBS introduced that Korea has installed COVID-19 testing centers at about 570 locations nationwide, including public health centers, where anyone who wants to can receive a test if infection is suspected after a doctor's examination.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.