`Please send us your unused raincoats. Any color will do,` Mayor Ichiro Matsui told reporters on April 14.
On the website, the Osaka government also urgently called: `Whether you are a citizen of the city or not, please give us a raincoat.`
Postal workers delivered government cloth masks to households in Tokyo on April 17.
Covid-19 is increasingly spreading in the Osaka area, with more than 1,000 cases, second only to the epicenter of the epidemic in Tokyo.
`The number of hospitals able to admit patients with high fever and difficulty breathing is gradually decreasing,` the statement said, warning that these patients were instead being transferred to emergency clinics, leaving patients with the disease
`We fear that patients with heart attacks, strokes or multiple injuries may lose precious time receiving treatment,` the statement said.
Japan currently records 9,800 cases of infection, of which 190 deaths.
The Nikkei newspaper said the fabric used to make protective gear in Japan is produced abroad and is difficult to produce domestically, while demand in other countries is also increasing.
Osaka’s call shocked many Japanese.
`It reminds me of wartime, when the government asked people to donate anything made of metal,` one person commented on Twitter.
`I feel very sad for the medical staff who have to wear raincoats to work,` said another.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Justice, in response to the shortage of medical supplies, prisoners in some prisons in Osaka and Kyoto are being mobilized to produce protective equipment.
The supply of antiseptic water is also running out, forcing the Japanese Ministry of Health to allow the use of strong alcohol with an alcohol content of 70-83% in hospitals.
