“If the virus spreads to the wider public, we won’t be able to keep track of patients and may have to place them in shared rooms with noncoronavirus patients,” said professor Hitoshi Oshitani of the Tohoku University School of Medicine.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Japan-seized-with-anxiety-over-homegrown-outbreak
From your link....
...The longer it takes for a diagnosis, the greater the risk that patients infect those around them. But confirming cases can be tough — especially for younger, healthier patients with only mild symptoms, much less people with no symptoms at all. Five of the roughly 760 passengers on chartered flights from Wuhan tested positive despite not having any symptoms, meaning they would have been impossible to catch through regular channels.
Treatment capacity is an issue as well. Fourteen of Japan’s 47 prefectures miss their own benchmarks for the number of beds in isolation wards. Overall, there are 1,871 beds across Japan’s isolation chambers — 36 fewer than the goal. The health ministry on Sunday said coronavirus patients can stay in nonisolated facilities if no beds are available.
“If the virus spreads to the wider public, we won’t be able to keep track of patients and may have to place them in shared rooms with noncoronavirus patients,” said professor Hitoshi Oshitani of the Tohoku University School of Medicine.....