About 1,300 people show up each day to get tested for COVID-19 at the Kabukicho Center in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. The facility, managed by medical and housing operator Kinoshita Group, opened in late December.
The procedure is simple: you enter a booth, spit into a kit and wait for the results, which you receive by email the next day.
The center is located a few blocks from the Kabukicho nightlife district, the scene of several initial outbreaks in Japan, and which is proving popular with citizens and local businesses.
Among its consumers are members of the nearby Kanka Chinese Hot Pot restaurant. The virus is a constant source of anxiety for them, as business is almost completely exhausted and those who enjoy it in China are worried about their safety.
Iwakami Ei, the restaurant’s manager, hopes the personal tests will help dispel some of those considerations and has arranged for each and every staff member to be evaluated.
“If we’re still afraid of getting infected, we offer 100% service,” he says.
But while those personal centers have eased pressure on government-run centers, some officials have expressed considerations about the quality of service. And since personal clinics are not required to notify the government of positive results, there are considerations that infection figures would possibly be underestimated. .
Inagawa Taro, who runs the Kinoshita center in Shinjuku, says the center sends detailed emails to others who test positive, adding commands to notify public fitness centers and medical services about the result. It also says that the effects of the test should not be taken as definitive evidence. of infection anyway.
Kobayashi Keiichiro, director of studies at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research and a member of the government’s advisory committee on the coronavirus, claims with this assessment that a user who tests negative can still bring the virus and that a PCR test is only a snapshot. But despite those issues, he says the user clinics are a boon for a country that has noticed the pandemic has brought its fitness formula to the point of collapse.
“If many other people are tested, we will be able to locate asymptomatic cases in Tokyo,” he said. “If testing centers can locate carriers and temporarily link them to medical facilities, it would be possible to save them secondary illnesses. “and tertiary contagion in the city. “
And recent government moves imply that it shares this view. On January 15, the Ministry of Health proposed a legal revision to promote cooperation between personal PCR testing centers and medical institutions. Some municipalities have already subsidized personal PCR tests.
Back at Kanka Hot Pot, Iwakami has news: they all tested negative.
“I’m relieved,” she says, “because this means we’ll possibly stay open. “
As Japan grapples with a growing number of infections, any concerns about personal testing centers fade. Their service may not be perfect, but they offer people something that’s missing these days: peace of mind.