11/4 札幌のコロナ検査が難航

As the number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Hokkaido continues to rise, the city of Sapporo is struggling to understand the actual situation of infection.

The city's health center is struggling to conduct a survey to find out the behavioral history of infected people due to a lack of personnel.

A spate of clusters of infected people in restaurants and bars is making it difficult to confirm whether or not customers who have been in close contact with the group have been tested, due to privacy concerns.

As the actual situation became harder to grasp, the city began discussing countermeasures with national experts on 3.

The city's public health center has about 15 public health workers on the phone to those who have been tested and found to be infected, asking them where they stopped by and who they visited.

It will take at least an hour for each infected person to be interviewed.

In the case of restaurant employees who work late night shifts, it is difficult to get through to them, and asymptomatic infected people may not cooperate with the investigation.

A city official said, "The interviews are voluntary. They are not telling us everything about their activities," he said with a resigned look on his face.