Medical workers who contract the new type of influenza from patients and who then have to take time off work will be compensated for income lost while they are on sick leave, government officials said.
The medical institution where the worker is employed also will receive compensation.
The compensation will be paid from a 1 trillion yen temporary subsidy for local revitalization and measures for tackling the economic crisis, which has been newly created in the supplementary budget for this fiscal year.
The compensation will be paid from this autumn through local governments who have requested the money from the central government.
As of Saturday, there had been no reports of secondary infection with the new flu among medical workers.
In May, when the number of people in the nation suffering from the virus started rising, local governments began pressing the central government for sick leave compensation in the event of medical workers becoming infected with the new flu and being forced to recuperate at home.
Some argue that the risk of secondary infection among medical workers has increased since May 22, when the government's new policy allowed people suspected of being infected with the new flu to seek treatment not only at fever clinics for treating such people but also at ordinary hospitals and clinics in areas where the number of new flu patients had soared.
The government sees the compensation as part of its regional support measures and examined whether the subsidy could be used for this purpose before reaching its decision. The main purpose of the subsidy is economic measures, but the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry interpreted the compensation for doctors and other medical workers as assuring public safety and security, which is one of the subsidy's purposes.
The government will allow the subsidy to be used for some other new flu related purposes as well, such as salaries for nonresident doctors working at fever clinics and phone line connection fees at fever consultation centers.
Previously, the government granted more flexible uses of the subsidy as anti-new flu measures. For example, it can also be used to pay cancellation fees when a school trip must be called off because of a new flu scare.
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