Preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic in the department of radiation oncology in the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo

摘要

Since the beginning of the outbreak of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2019 in Wuhan, China [ ], the virus has rapidly spread throughout the world. Italy, Spain and the USA suffered the most, and subsequently the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic on 12 March 2020. Because Japan is close to China and the Cruise ship ‘Diamond Princess’ arrived at the port of Yokohama as early as 3 February, including passengers infected by the COVID-19, several quarantine measures were put in place without the declaration of an emergency, thus avoiding a negative impact on society and the economy. However, because the number of infected patients whose route of infection was unknown increased, our Prime Minister finally declared a state of emergency on 9 April.