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On April 24, 2020, the Prime Minister held the 31st meeting of the Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, the participants discussed the response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
 
Following the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“I would like to reiterate my heartfelt gratitude to those who are right now devoting themselves at medical sites to saving as many lives as possible. To ensure the prevention of infections among them, it is necessary to deliver as many pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the front lines as possible.
 
We have already delivered 58 million surgical masks throughout the country. We will also deliver 15 million within this month. Regarding medical gowns and other equipment, we have started delivery to prefectures, especially those with a significant number of patients. We also intend to distribute 1.5 million high performance masks, such as N95 masks, 1.3 million medical gowns, and 1.9 million face shields nationwide, delivering them expeditiously to medical institutions facing shortages of such supplies.
 
Moreover, for the hospitals providing treatment and screening for patients, the government will supply PPE directly and with priority. To that end, I instruct you to develop a web-based system for monitoring demands and establish the necessary structure.
 
To date, the government has been working on increasing domestic production of PPE and other measures, with the full cooperation of the business community. Nevertheless, the shortages of supplies remain critical. I request you to mobilize all the resources of the government to deliver as many pieces of PPE as possible to healthcare workers, who are on the front lines in the fight against the virus despite such circumstances.
 
As the closure of schools and other facilities is prolonged and the public continues to refrain from going outside due to the spread of the novel coronavirus disease, there is heightened risk of child abuse, domestic violence (DV), and other forms of violence as a result of people’s worries about their daily lives and stress. Amid the growing anxiety in society, it is the duty of the government to firmly protect those in socially vulnerable positions.
 
To that end, regarding child abuse prevention measures, I ask each minister to work closely, especially with the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, and work on regularly monitoring the situations of children and their families, prioritizing the protection of children’s lives and mobilizing various local community networks.
 
With respect to DV prevention measures, we established a new consultation service on April 20.
 
The number is 0120-279-889, which is the toll-free dialing prefix followed by tsu-na-gu (2-7-9) ha-ya-ku (8-8-9) (connect quickly). From April 29, next week, this service will be in operation 24 hours a day. We will raise awareness of this service, as well as the child-abuse response number for child guidance centers, which is 189 or ichi-haya-ku (1-8-9) (as quickly as possible). Furthermore, as some have pointed out that it is difficult to make a consultation while other family members are at home, we will make consultations available not only by phone, but also social media and email. We will also take steps to ensure that cash payments are delivered directly to DV victims who are staying in shelters. Please continue to strengthen related measures, including enhancing support for private shelters.
 
The government must strengthen its efforts towards the eradication of violence at home and support for the victims, by harmonizing its child abuse prevention measures and DV prevention measures. I ask the relevant ministers to further enhance such efforts.
 
Yesterday, the government presented to local governments a guideline regarding procedures and related matters when making requests or issuing instructions, in accordance with Article 45 of the Act on Special Measures for Pandemic Influenza and New Infectious Diseases Preparedness and Response, to business operators that do not comply with requests for their temporary closure. We will continue to accelerate efforts to reduce people-to-people contact by 80%, in close cooperation with local governments, business associations, and others.
 
Now is a critical juncture for us to end the state of emergency as early as possible. I ask for the further cooperation of the public for achieving an 80% reduction in people-to-people contact, responding to the requests from respective local governments and also taking into account the 10 points for reducing people-to-people contact by 80% as reference.”