TOKYO — A foreign participant in the Paralympic Games in Japan has been hospitalized with non-severe symptoms of COVID-19, Kyodo News said on Thursday, citing the Games’ organizing committee.
It is the first hospitalization of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which opened on Tuesday.
Hospitals in Japan treating COVID-19 patients have usually reserved beds for people showing severe symptoms.
The national government and the Tokyo Metropolitan government appealed on Monday to hospitals in the capital to accept more COVID-19 patients.
Less than 10% of coronavirus patients are hospitalized in Tokyo, and the low level of admissions has added to public frustration with the government’s COVID-19 response, undermining voter support for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
— Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Simon Cameron-Moore