Japanese local government management of compulsory hospitalization for patients with mental disorders and comorbid COVID-19

Naito, Nobushige; Hirosawa, Tetsu; Tsubomoto, Makoto; Sano, Masuhiko; Miyagishi, Yoshiaki; Kameya, Masafumi; Okuda, Takeshi; Kikuchi, Mitsuru

Administering medical treatment or managing quarantine for a patient is particularly difficult when a patient harming others or causing self-harm because of severe depression, a manic state, or psychomotor agitation is also infected with COVID-19. Kanazawa University Hospital is the only facility able to manage such difficult cases occurring in Ishikawa prefecture, a local administrative area in Japan. The hospital has arranged a negative pressure apparatus in a psychiatric ward with two protection rooms. This report describes an urgently established but viable system in one prefecture of Japan for treating COVID-19-infected patients with severe psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.