TOKYO: Japan's Defense Ministry has put a time limit of about one week to many of the Self-Defense Forces' disaster relief missions providing living assistance to coronavirus patients with mild symptoms at accommodation facilities.

The duration of the SDF's disaster relief missions, carried out at the request of local authorities, is not set beforehand in many cases. But the ministry judged that SDF officers are not needed to provide living assistance, such as carrying meals to designated locations without meeting coronavirus patients, if thorough infection prevention measures are in place.

The ministry also aims to establish a division of roles after the SDF's initial responses, by providing its know-how on putting on and taking off of protective suits to local and private-sector officials.

"The SDF will engage in initial activities including living assistance and logistics support, and switch tasks smoothly after a week," Defense Minister Taro Kono said.

By getting local governments and private companies to do what they can, the ministry aims to set aside some SDF resources to prepare for the possibility of an explosive rise in coronavirus cases or a large-scale natural disaster.

Since early April, the SDF has received requests for disaster relief missions to deal with coronavirus outbreaks from Tokyo and other prefectures across the country, including Hokkaido, Miyagi, Saitama, Kanagawa, Hyogo, Kochi and Fukuoka.

The SDF has completed missions to provide living assistance to patients with no or mild symptoms staying at hotels and other accommodation facilities in about a week.

During the missions, SDF officers instructed local officials on how to put on and take off medical gowns, caps and gloves while preventing infections.

In addition, the SDF provided related know-how as hygiene education support to officials in the Osaka and Okayama prefectural governments and other local authorities as well as workers at private accommodation facilities.

Hotels accepting coronavirus patients do not have employees engage in living support operations in many cases due to safety reasons, so local government officials are tasked with such operations day and night.

"Limited activity periods were a condition for the SDF side at the arrangement stage before we made a request for disaster relief missions," a local government official said.

"Local government workers, who usually do deskwork, will suddenly have to deal with situations in protective suits," the official said. "The SDF should support us flexibly even after mission periods end, because infection risks remain."

A senior ministry official said: "We work closely with local authorities. Extensions of mission periods and mission relaunches are possible if requests are made."

JIJI Press