Japan asks Tokyo hospitals to accept more COVID-19 patients

FILE PHOTO: A medical worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) works in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients at St. Marianna Medical University Hospital in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, Japan May 4, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government and the Tokyo Metropolitan government appealed on Monday to hospitals in the capital to accept more COVID-19 patients as increasing infections has made it increasingly difficult to get access to care.

Fewer than one in 10 coronavirus patients is hospitalised in Tokyo, fuelling public frustration with the government's COVID-19 response and undermining voter support for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.