Japan currently conducts about 9,000 tests per day and the move for dentists to administer them is aimed at relieving the burden on doctors and boosting capacity.
Etsuo Hara/Getty ImagesA man reads a sports newspaper on the street amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, on Tuesday.
The decision comes after an expert panel recommended it to the Health Ministry at a meeting on Sunday, theUntil now, dentists haven't been authorized to conduct such tests, but Japan's state of emergency over COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, led to consideration of the special measure.the World Health Organization.
After battling coronavirus early in the pandemic, Japan appeared to have largely stemmed the tide of the virus. In recent weeks, however, the country has seen its number of confirmed cases increase, apparently due in part to increased testing. There have been someThe new cases have stretched Japan's health care infrastructure in some places. For instance, seven out of eight beds in the intensive care unit of St.
"If we max-out eight beds, we can't place patients who suddenly take a turn for the worse, so we always keep one bed open," Fumie Sakamoto, who manages the 500-room hospital's infection control division, told
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