A new strain of the Japan Covid strain has been detected in Japan’s capital Tokyo. In Japan, the government declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures last week after seeing a steep rise in coronavirus cases.
The new coronavirus variant has been detected in four travellers from Brazil’s Amazonas state, Japan’s health ministry said Sunday. The strain differs from highly infectious variants first found in Britain and South Africa that have driven a surge in cases in those countries.
Brazil’s Health Minister issued a statement that the new variant has 12 mutations, one of which is also present in the variants found in the U.K. and South Africa. “It implies a potential higher virus infectiousness,” it said.
Japan Covid detected
The latest COVID-19 variant is different from that recently identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, the health ministry said the new variant was found in four people who arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport earlier this month. The infected are aged between teens and 40s and all of them have travel history to Brazil’s Amazonas state.
Tokyo has been reporting over 1,000 COVID-19 infections for the past seven days as its cumulative tally crossed 76,000 on Monday. Greater Tokyo has been under a state of emergency since January 7 as Japanese PM Yoshihide Sugar said the “situation has become increasingly troubling.”
Previously, five people with UK travel history had tested positive for the new variant, which is said to be 70% more contagious. However, there is yet no evidence if it is more deadly.
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