Japan's COVID hospitalization limits draw lawmaker backlash

Policy focusing on sickest patients should apply only to hot spots, ruling party argues

20210804N vaccination

Visitors wait in line at a COVID-19 vaccination center at Aoyama University in Tokyo. Tokyo has been reporting record daily COVID cases. © Reuters

Nikkei staff writers

TOKYO -- Lawmakers from Japan's ruling party on Wednesday called on the government to reverse a new policy limiting COVID hospitalizations to all but severely ill patients. 

Arguing that only "hospitals in Tokyo are in a crisis situation" due to surging infections, Toshiharu Furukawa, head of the Liberal Democratic Party's vaccine task force, said the policy should not be applied uniformly nationwide. 

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