with the growing numbers of serious cases let alone an outbreak in the paralympic village. 0ur tokyo correspondent rupert wingfield hayes has been travelling with a medical team in southern tokyo as they fight to keep patients alive and try to find them hospital beds. in the back of the car, dr kazuma tashiro is trying to find a hospital bed for one of his covid patients. in this densely packed part of southern tokyo, there are now dozens of covid patients who need to be in hospital but can t get a bed. dr tashiro and his team are a literal lifeline. in this block, a 61 year old man is very sick and on oxygen. so, last night, i called him to check if he was alive and he could talk with me at the time. but this morning, i couldn t talk with him by phone, so i m very anxious for his healthy conditions.
working the phones, trying to find beds. so, what if there s an outbreak at the paralympics? yeah, i think there are no room to treat the paralympic members because manyjapanese people cannot get into the hospitals. it s time to move again. a new address and a new set of ppe. like the first man, this patient has not been vaccinated. this is the pattern now. the man is in bad condition. his lips are turning blue and he s having difficulty breathing. dr tashiro thinks he may have pneumonia. he really needs to be in hospital. it is really difficult for us to make a definite diagnosis. so, he needs to go to hospital now? yes, yes, yes, definitely. and what did they say, is there any beds or you don t know? yes, now, no beds. dr tashiro and his team are keeping
the man is in bad condition his lips are turning blue and he s having difficulty breathing. dr tashiro thinks he may have pneumonia he really needs to be in hospital. it is very difficult for us to make a definitive diagnosis. so he needs to go to hospital now? yes, yes, definitely. and what did they say? are there any beds do you know yet? no, no beds. dr tashiro and his team are keeping these people live. but across tokyo, there are now more than 10,000 covid patients waiting for a hospital bed. each extra day they re forced to wait, the more likely it is they will die. rupert wingfield hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. i really worrying situation in japan there. as thousands flee for safety from afghanistan for a new life in the uk, another group abandoning their homeland of hong kong say safety
it is not good value, so i put the oxygen mask to his mouth, and please keep it to protect your life. and what s going to happen now about his bill? ah! this is for telephone bill, he is living alone. so, he couldn t pay his telephone bill because of his very bad condition so i received it and now i m going to the convenience store to pay it, pay for it. it s the arrival of the delta variant here injapan that has led to this explosion of covid cases. if you look back to mid july, there were around 1,500 new cases a day. by mid august, that hadjumped to 6,000. and now we re seeing the same with seriously ill. at the end ofjuly, dr tashiro and his team were treating just one seriously ill person. last week, that had jumped to 50. phone rings. back at base, staff are constantly
it s the arrival of the delta variant here injapan that s led to this explosion of covid cases. if you look back to mid july, there were around 1,500 new cases a day. by mid august, that hadjumped to 6,000. now we re seeing the same with the seriously ill. at the end ofjuly, dr tashiro and his team were treating just one seriously ill person. last week, that had jumped to 50. telephone rings. back at base, staff are constantly working the phones, trying to find beds. so what if there s a covid outbreak at the paralympics? i think there s no room to treat the paralympics members, because many japanese people cannot get into hospitals. it s time to move again a new address and a new set of ppe.