The speed at which Osaka’s healthcare system was overwhelmed underscores the challenges of hosting a major global sports event in two months’ time, particularly as only about half of Japan’s medical staff have completed inoculations. ‘‘Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system,’’ Yuji Tohda, the director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka, said. The variant could make even young people very sick quickly, and once seriously ill, patients found it tough to make a recovery, Toshiaki Minami, director of the Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital (OMPUH), said. Son’s tweets followed comments on Friday from IOC vice-president John Coates that the games would ‘‘absolutely’’ go ahead even if Tokyo was under Covid-19 restrictions. Japan remains under state-of-emergency curbs that have progressively been expanded as a fourth wave of infections rips through the population.

Source: Otago Daily Times May 24, 2021 21:11 UTC