Japan's Health Care System Overwhelmed; Everyday Heroes Stepping Up to Fill Equipment Void
COREN: Japan's health care system is overwhelmed. There is concern over a lack of protective equipment for frontline workers. Hospitals are rejecting patients in record numbers. Many Japanese are ignoring social distancing guidelines. CNN spoke with a doctor who says that 90 percent of these requests for COVID-19 tests have been declined. Will Ripley has more.</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): Loudspeakers are blaring amongst Tokyo warning people to stay home. Some are listening. Many are not, packing supermarkets, parks, playgrounds, even a gambling park. Japanese health experts warn that without social distancing, hundreds of thousands could die of coronavirus. Getting tested remains incredibly difficult. This man's daughter had a 104-degree fever, 40 degrees Celsius for 4 days. "My wife and I were very nervous. Desperately asking for a test but they kept saying no. They even hung up on me." Within days, his entire family was sick. They tried to get tested for two agonizing weeks. "It was scary. Our first daughter also had a fever, then a seizure. We took her to the hospital but it was too late." She was just 16 months old when she died of flu-related meningitis five years ago. His wife and children were never tested for the coronavirus. A doctor says the same thing is happening to a lot of his patients. "Only 10 percent of my requests are accepted."</s>RIPLEY: 90 percent denied?</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): On average this month, Tokyo is testing less than 300 people a day. Japan's health ministry has repeatedly told CNN widespread testing would be a waste of resources. Just this week, some areas did begin offering drive-through and walk- through testing. But it is not widely available. Undertesting is not the only problem. Hospitals are turning away ambulances at a rate four times higher than last April.</s>RIPLEY: Your patient is laying there for up to nine hours, getting no treatment whatsoever and hospitals kept turning him away? "I have never experienced being turned away by so many hospitals before the coronavirus outbreak." Japan's medical association warns the public health system is on the brink of collapsing. Running low on ICU beds, ventilators and personal protective equipment. "We only get one mask per week." CNN agreed not to use her full name, identify her hospital.</s>RIPLEY: How is one mask a week possible to keep you safe from the virus? "It is scary," she says, showing me the cloth mask that she uses. Experts warn that cloth masks don't protect nurses from coronavirus. Several Japanese hospitals have already become clusters of an infection. "I am worried about how long this will continue. I am afraid that there is no end in sight." With case numbers skyrocketing in Japan, this may be just the beginning -- Will Ripley, CNN, Tokyo.</s>COREN: The U.S. is facing a dire shortage of PPE, as the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow. In this new shelter in place reality, everyday heroes are making the best of their situation by lending a helping hand. CNN's Fredricka Whitfield explains.</s>FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Normally on a Tuesday, 12 year old Vince would be in gym class. Now these are far from normal Tuesdays. Vince is working his makeshift assembly line in the family kitchen, using a 3D printer that he got when he was 9 and another one donated by the library where his mom works. Vince is making PPE face masks for those fighting the pandemic.</s>VINCE, 6TH GRADER: So this is the thing that you take off the 3D printer.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): The 6th grader got motivated after a neighbor, who is a nurse, put out a plea for</s>PPE. KATIE MARR, MT. SINAI HOSPITAL CHICAGO: I put a post on Facebook saying that if you have a 3D printer, if you can sew, we could use masks and eye shields.</s>VINCE: I watch her dog when she goes on vacations. I thought that it would be another way to help, the least I could do during the pandemic.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): For nearly three weeks now, the printers have buzzed along. At first, it was taking nearly three hours to print each frame.</s>VINCE: Me and my dad were like, no, that takes way too long.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): A few tweaks to the program and production time was cut to about an hour apiece.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): All over the country, people are stepping up to help fill the critical need for PPE. Philip Schammer (ph) and Eric Race (ph) are high school engineering teachers in Illinois District 214. Along with several colleagues, they took home the school's 3D printers and got to work making headbands for face masks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have four printers. They are running constantly, 24-7.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an opportunity and a moral imperative to help save lives in the community.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): The district partnered with the local community college that has idle laser cutters, good for making masks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that we have these tools here available to support producing 5,000 PPEs and beyond is a calling that we must answer.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): John Kermen (ph) would normally be teaching welding class but now he is manning the face mask cutting assembly line.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's getting to the point where we're just trying to produce as many as we can as quickly as we can.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Jeff, how are you?</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): Last week they delivered their first shipment to the Buffalo Grove, Illinois, Fire Department. Some have gone to the ICU unit at Elk Grove Hospital. Some have gone as far as Nashville, Tennessee; Dearborn, Michigan and San Marcos, California.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): And one place very close to home?</s>VINCE: My grandma's nursing home. They recently had their first COVID-19 case.</s>WHITFIELD (voice-over): And let's not forget those first ones Vince sent to his neighbor's hospital.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You never know who has your back. This little 11 year old neighbor has got my back.</s>COREN: Such essential amazing work. That was CNN's Fredricka Whitfield. A trip to the beach looks very different in the new coronavirus reality. When we return, we will find out how they are faring in California.