Convenience is king: A man looking at a vending machine selling PCR test kits at the entrance of a ramen noodle shop at Shibuya district in Tokyo. — Reuters
TOKYO: In Japan, convenience is king and getting tested for Covid-19 can be highly inconvenient. Part of the solution, as it is for a range of daily necessities in Tokyo, has become the humble vending machine.
Eager to conserve manpower and hospital resources, the government conducts just 40,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests a day, a quarter of its capacity, restricting them to people who are quite symptomatic or have had a high chance of being infected.
