The Tokyo Paralympics will be held without spectators at all venues due to an alarming rise in coronavirus infections in the host city and many other parts of Japan, officials familiar with the planning said Monday, about a week before the opening of the games.
Twenty-eight new residents and six staff members were found to be positive at a support facility for people with disabilities in Midori Ward, Sagamihara City.
The Tokyo Paralympics are highly likely to have no spectators in principle as the novel coronavirus continues to rage, especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area, now under a COVID-19 state of emergency.
The torch relay for the Tokyo Paralympics will be taken off public roads for Aug. 20-24 legs in the capital due to the current COVID-19 infection status, the metropolitan government said Tuesday.
The new guidelines stipulate that COVID-19 patients with a low possibility of developing severe symptoms be cared for at home, in principle. However, Chiba Prefecture has established its own standards for hotel treatment and home treatments, with exceptions for people with disabilities, the elderly or pregnant who are asymptomatic or mildly ill.
Japan’s health minister Norihisa Tamura said Thursday that COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms will be advised to be treated at a hospital if the doctor says they have a high risk of getting more ill, under the government’s revised guidelines on coronavirus hospitalization.
“People with moderate symptoms will be hospitalized, in principle,” Tamura also explained at a parliamentary committee meeting.
According to the health ministry’s guidelines, moderately ill COVID-19 patients are divided into the Moderate I and II groups. Moderate I patients have a short breath and show signs of pneumonia, while Moderate II patients suffer severer symptoms and need oxygen administration. The new policy would keep Moderate I patients at home.
“The number of seriously ill patients in the 40-to-early 60s age range is increasing, so it is necessary to speed up vaccinations. If this generation gets vaccinated, then the younger generations, which include their children, will be more willing to get the vaccine.”
Due to the influence of the new coronavirus, the facilities where people with disabilities work in Okayama Prefecture are under pressure. Events were cancelled one after another due to infection prevention measures, and opportunities to sell products such as handmade bread and handicrafts, which were sources of income, decreased sharply. This is because the number of orders from business partners has decreased significantly at business establishments that process parts as a subcontractor. Each facility is trying to find a way to develop sales channels and develop new products in order to support the lives of people with disabilities.
On July 31st, Gunma Prefecture announced that three employees and three users of a welfare service center for the disabled in the jurisdiction of the Isesaki Public Health Center had been confirmed to have been infected with the new coronavirus on the same day.
Barrier Free Japan