The Cabinet Office and the University of Tsukuba have begun a demonstration experiment of infectious disease testing using a newly developed large bus equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell.It is a bus equipped with independent power supply, communication function, PCR inspection, etc., which enables quick inspection by rushing to the site in the event of a disaster.
According to the Cabinet Office, Professor Hiromichi Suzuki of the University of Tsukuba Medical and Medical Sciences and Professor Kenji Suzuki of the Systems Information Systems are in charge of the demonstration experiment. Until December, after conducting in-vehicle inspections and vehicle performance on large buses, and demonstration experiments assuming that medical facilities lost power, similar demonstration experiments were conducted using the microbus currently under development from January to March. From February to March, we will use a large bus and a minibus together to secure quality power that does not affect medical equipment and to carry out demonstration experiments at large-scale events.
The large bus can notify the test result in about 40 minutes after receiving the sample. One unit can carry out about 1 inspections per day.Since it has an independent power supply, it can operate even if medical institutions and health centers lose power.
With the spread of new coronavirus infections, the risk of infectious diseases spreading across national borders in a short period of time has been reconfirmed, and countermeasures against infectious diseases in the event of a natural disaster such as a major earthquake have emerged as an urgent issue.In order to overcome this situation, the Cabinet Office and the University of Tsukuba are aiming to develop a mobility for disaster medicine that enables prompt inspection even in the event of a disaster, and to establish an inspection flow assuming a disaster.
