New Government Corona Measures What will the new policy change?

New Government Corona Measures What will the new policy change? August 31, 17:45

Regarding the response to the new coronavirus, the government's countermeasure headquarters announced a new policy such as reviewing the inspection system on 28th this month (August). Let's take a concrete look at what and how it will change.

Strengthening "inspection system"

The first is "inspection". In anticipation of the influenza pandemic from autumn to winter, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has announced a policy to strengthen the inspection system for the new coronavirus on the 28th of this month.

Up until now, the main routes were to contact the “consultation consultation center” established at public health centers and undergo examinations at specialized outpatient clinics and the “regional outpatient and examination center” established by medical associations. .. There, we will set up a route to collectively carry out examinations and tests at local clinics.

Behind this is the future influenza epidemic.
Influenza and new coronavirus have similar symptoms such as fever, and there may be a series of patients who do not know whether they are flu or corona at the local clinic.

For this reason, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is planning to strengthen the system so that it is possible to perform flu and corona tests at the same time in local clinics. We plan to use the simple antigen test kit, which produces results in a short time, and procure 200,000 simple kits per day this October.

On the other hand, there are challenges. It is a countermeasure for infection at the clinic where the inspection is performed.
The inspection is carried out at a clinic equipped with infection control measures and registered with the prefecture. Since it is difficult to isolate fever patients in some clinics, and because infection countermeasures cannot be taken sufficiently, there may be some places where they may be reluctant to perform the test, and to what extent can the clinic cooperate with the test. The issue is how to increase it.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is planning to contact the local governments nationwide during next month (September) to prepare an inspection plan to prepare for the outbreak of influenza.

The cost of the test is a public expense, so the patient does not have to pay for it.

Operation review of "hospitalization"

The operation of "hospitalization" for people infected with the new coronavirus will also be reviewed.

Specifically, people who are asymptomatic or mildly ill will not be admitted to a medical institution, and in principle, will be thoroughly treated at an accommodation facility or home.

Until now, people who had no symptoms were supposed to receive medical treatment at accommodation facilities, etc., but in some areas it is considered that they are often required to be hospitalized.

For this reason, the aim of this review is to reduce the number of people who are hospitalized, to focus limited medical resources on the treatment of critically ill people, and to reduce the burden on the public health center for hospitalization.

On the other hand, there is concern that the burden may increase in some cases because the public health center has to carry out follow-up observations for those who receive medical treatment at accommodation facilities.

Inoculation system of "vaccine"

Of these, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare wants to create a system that can be inoculated to all citizens in the first half of next year for the new coronavirus vaccine.

To that end, a basic agreement has already been reached to supply at least 60 million people from the American pharmaceutical giant "Pfizer" by the end of June next year and from AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom from January next year. did.

We are also proceeding with negotiations with US "Moderna" to supply 20 million people from the first half of next year. However, it is unclear whether a sufficient amount will be supplied to Japan, assuming that development has been successful.

In addition, it is not clear at this point how effective it will be and how long it will last. Although confirmation of safety is in progress, some say within the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare that it is difficult to accurately determine safety unless a large number of people actually inoculate.

Strengthening employment measures

The government has announced that it will step up measures to protect employment as the economy is hit hard by the spread of the new coronavirus.

The "Employment Adjustment Subsidy" is a system in which the government subsidizes some of the leave allowances, etc., even if sales decrease and the company maintains employment by taking leave of employees.

Since February 2017, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has been implementing special measures for companies affected by the new coronavirus, and the maximum amount of subsidy of 8330 yen per person per day to 15,000 yen for employees The rate of subsidies such as leave allowances paid to companies has increased to 75% for large companies and 100% for small and medium-sized companies.

The deadline for special measures was until the end of next month (September), but the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has decided to extend it until the end of December.

From January next year, unless the employment situation deteriorates significantly due to the rapid increase in the number of unemployed people, we would like to gradually reduce special measures.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, there are 884,863 applications for employment adjustment subsidy from February to 21st of this month (August), of which 777,633 were decided to be paid. This is over 94.1 billion yen.

There were no special measures like this time, but the total amount paid in the two years from FY2009 after the Lehman shock was ¥978.5 billion, which was over six months. ..

On the other hand, the main source of employment adjustment subsidies is employment insurance premiums paid by companies, but this has decreased significantly. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, “Stable Employment Fund” was 1,440 billion yen at the end of 2018, but is expected to be 125.6 billion yen at the end of this year.

In addition, the reserve fund that will be the source of unemployment benefits for employment insurance is expected to be 2,644.0 billion yen at the end of this fiscal year, and for the time being, it will be possible to borrow from this reserve in the "Employment Security Fund" by special provision. There is also a way to transfer from the general account.

As the spread of the new coronavirus is expected to continue to affect the economy, how to secure the necessary financial resources and maintain a system to protect employment is an issue for the future.