Nursery schools stop identifying close contacts to let parents work

A staff member opens a window at Kasaihatsu Miraiiki Hoikuen nursery school in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, on Aug. 4. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

A growing number of local governments no longer require nursery schools to identify people who have had close contact with coronavirus carriers.

The move is aimed at minimizing the impact on working parents amid the seventh wave of the novel coronavirus, and easing the burden on nursery schools and health centers that carry out virus carrier-identification work.