Relatives of virus dead question Japan's stay-at-home policy

Two women whose relatives died from the coronavirus at home are questioning the Japanese government's policy of having some infected people recuperate in their own homes

TOKYO -- Yoshihiko Takeuchi, who ran a small restaurant on the island of Okinawa, told only a few friends he had the coronavirus. When he didn't answer phone calls from public health workers for three days, police went to his home and found him dead in his bed.

He was among hundreds of people who have died while subject to “jitaku ryoyo,” or a policy of having some COVID-19 patients “recuperate at home."

In many countries, those with the virus stay home to isolate and recover, but critics say that in Japan, a country with one of the most affordable and accessible health care systems, people have been denied hospital care, and the policy amounted to “jitaku hochi,” or “abandonment at home.”

Takeuchi's sister and a daughter of another man who died at home of COVID-19 have started an online support group for grieving relatives of such victims.