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Coronavirus testing now covered by Japan’s insurance

Published : Saturday, 7 March, 2020 at 4:19 PM  Count : 484

Coronavirus testing now covered by Japan’s insurance

Coronavirus testing now covered by Japan’s insurance

In the wake of criticism of fewer people being tested for COVID-19 in Japan compared than in neighboring countries, national health insurance has been covered by screenings since Friday in an attempt to increase the test.

However, it remains uncertain whether more people will be screened as a result, and some municipalities and hospitals have confused that the novel coronavirus does not have the necessary tools to test it.

At the same time, the Ministry of Health has called on the private sector to help develop faster, more reliable and cheaper testing methods.

“We are hopeful that the private sector can help boost the country's testing capacity,” Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference Friday. “We will support this effort as best we can.”

COVID-19 screening was already free for patients, but physicians needed the approval of the local public health center for their management using public funds. This, as well as the lack of necessary equipment, slowed down the process or forced them to withdraw their patients directly.

Now, physicians can decide whether patients should be tested and samples not only at regional public health institutes, but also by pharmaceutical companies hospitals with adequate infection control systems and necessary equipment.

The Ministry of Health has said that around 6000 hospitals across the country are capable of conducting CVD-1 tests, most of them only collecting samples.

A representative from a designated medical center in Tokyo said, “We do not have the equipment or chemicals required to perform a test in the hospital,” which samples should be sent to a separate facility for analysis. “Now the tests are covered by national health insurance but that doesn't mean things will change immediately here.”

Experts say inadequate tests can mask the true severity of domestic COVID-19 outbreaks, and active testing may be the only way to stop the virus from spreading further.

Scott Burris, director of the Public Health Law Research Center at Temple University in Philadelphia, said it would be prudent for the government to actively examine communities across the country to infect the virus and to what extent the degree was taken.

Late last month, the Health Ministry released a preliminary set of policies to tackle the outbreak that prioritized treatment for those at risk of developing pneumonia, encouraging elite hospitals to stay in light-skinned homes for more critical situations for those with critical conditions.

Although the government claims that it has the capacity to conduct 5,3 tests a day, only 7,7 were tested between February 8 and February 20, the Health Minister told the Diet last week.

South Korea has quickly become the second largest center of the virus, according to official data, with 6.25 confirmed cases of infection. But transmission on the same scale could already be done in Japan, Burris said.

The reliability of the current testing method in Japan, as well as the accuracy of the results they received, was further questioned by several individuals who initially tested positive for COVID-19 positively.

As the central government has been frustrated in its efforts to control the coronavirus outbreak, pharmaceutical companies and regional governments across the country are leading the development of more accurate and more accurate testing methods to detect - and possibly prevent - the spread of the virus.

On Wednesday, Shimadzu Corporation announced that at the end of March a new advanced COVD-1 test was released, which could produce results within an hour. The precision-producing company also says the new method will be cheaper. It targets to produce about 50,000 kits per month.

In Japan, most people suspected of carrying the virus are screened using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which results in 90 minutes to two hours and require the test sample to be kept at a certain temperature. In some cases the process can take up to six hours, with extra time needed for testing and preparation of transportation samples.-Internet

GY


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Insurance   Trading   Coronavirus  








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