The social welfare corporation ‘Imizu Fukushi Kai’, which runs Imizu-en, a facility for those with mental disabilities in Toyama Prefecture’s Imizu City where a cluster of the new coronavirus has emerged, announced on the 23rd that a total of 60 users and employees had been infected in one day.
According to the Japan Association of Psychiatric Hospitals, from March last year to January this year, a total of 1,548 people, including 1,123 patients and 425 staff members, were infected at 116 facilities nationwide. Of these, about 60% wanted to be transferred to coronavirus beds but were unable to do so, mostly because of mental disorders, according to the association.
Japanese ruling and opposition parties on Thursday 20th May agreed to enact a new law to allow COVID-19 patients recovering in hotels or at home to vote by mail in national and local elections. COVID-19 patients and people who had close contact with them are required to stay in hotels or at home while they recover. It is difficult for them to visit polling stations.
While the vaccination program for elderly people aged 65 and over has started in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, a blind man living alone in the city received an envelope containing a vaccination ticket without Braille markings, and it was revealed that he was unable to check the contents for two weeks.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged Monday to speed up the vaccination of the country’s elderly population against the novel coronavirus, which began in earnest on the day.
The mayor of Aomori City, Akihiko Onodera, has instructed that vaccinations facilities for people with disabilities and child welfare facilities be expedited in parallel with vaccinations for elderly people’s facilities.
A cluster of people infected with the new coronavirus has broken out at a facility for people with disabilities in Saitama Prefecture, and the prefectural government is investigating the route of infection.
According to city officials and others, on April 11, two residents developed fever and were found to be positive in a PCR test. Subsequently, the infection spread within the facility, and 39 residents and 22 staff members were confirmed to be infected. Fourteen people died, including a resident who was recuperating at the facility because he could not find a place to be hospitalized.
According to Hiroshima City, PCR tests were conducted on six people who ate at a restaurant in the city together with a patient who was found to be infected on the 26th of this month, and a total of six people were confirmed to be infected. One person has moderate symptoms, and five people have mild or no symptoms.
At least three establishments in Kanazawa City are unable to accept new applications for the “home-visit bathing” care service. The reason behind this is that there is a shortage of staff, and there have been cases where ALS patients who have been refused access to the service have been unable to take a bath for a long period of time.
Barrier Free Japan