Japan's Osaka city crumples under Covid-19 onslaught

People wait to be processed after arriving to receive the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at the newly-opened mass vaccination center in Tokyo Monay, May 24, 2021. - AP

OSAKA, Japan (Reuters): Hospitals in Japan's second largest city of Osaka are buckling under a huge wave of new coronavirus infections, running out of beds and ventilators as exhausted doctors warn of a "system collapse", and advise against holding the Olympics this summer.

Japan's western region home to 9 million people is suffering the brunt of the fourth wave of the pandemic, accounting for a third of the nation's death toll in May, although it constitutes just 7% of its population.