Japan detects a new strain of the coronavirus

DPA, 10TH JANUARY, 2021-
 Japan’s Health Ministry on Sunday said that four people who had arrived in Tokyo from Brazil were found to be infected with a new variant of the coronavirus.

The four passengers who landed at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on January 2 from Amazonas, Brazil tested positive after spending time in the airport in quarantine, the ministry said.

Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, said the variant was different from those already spreading in Britain and South Africa, Kyodo News reported.
The institute said there was no evidence at present that the new strain was more contagious.

Of the four, a man in his 40s had been hospitalized after his breathing difficulties worsened while a woman in her 30s complained of a sore throat and headaches, and a male teenager developed a fever. A female teenager showed no symptoms, the ministry said.

The ministry also reported it had detected three more cases of a new coronavirus strain discovered in Britain, which is believed to be more transmissible.