TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th December, 2020) The Japanese government has decided to allocate 486.2 billion Yen (about $4.7 billion) from the reserve fund for the current fiscal year to provide additional financial assistance to healthcare facilities dealing with the COVID-19, as well as to companies affected by restrictive measures introduced amid the pandemic, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The agency said 269.3 billion yen will be used to subsidize the provision of beds for patients with coronavirus. For each new place provided for severe patients, the hospital will receive 15 million yen, and for a place for patients with mild form of the disease � 4.5 million yen.
The remaining 216.9 billion yen will be used to cover the costs of local governments to pay compensation to restaurants and bars that are following recommendation of authorities to limit their working hours.
Earlier in December, Japan's cabinet approved its third extra budget of 21.84 trillion yen to finance additional economic measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the adoption of the third package, the total budget for fiscal year 2020 will exceed 175 trillion yen. The third package of the budget is to be presented to the country's parliament during the next session in January. At the same time, it is expected that the initial budget for the 2021 fiscal year, which will begin on April 1, 2021, will also be discussed.
