The deadly South-African Covid-19 variant, Omicron had been detected in Japan barely 24 hours after reinstating tough boarder restrictions, banning all foreigners from South Africa and its neigbouring countries effective from November 30th.
Reporting the incident, the spokesperson of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Hirokazu Matsuno said the variant was detected in a traveller who arrived from Namibia , adding that the infected traveller, a man in his 30s, is now in isolation at a medical facility.
The heavily mutated variant was detected in South Africa earlier this month and then reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) last Wednesday.
The variant is responsible for most of the infections found in South Africa’s most populated province, Gauteng, over the last two weeks. The number of cases of appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in the country, according to the WHO.
South Africa reported 2,800 new infections on Sunday, a rise from the daily average of 500 in the previous week.
Japan has recorded just over 18,300 coronavirus cases during the pandemic and after a slow start, its vaccination programme picked up speed and nearly 77 percent of its population is fully vaccinated.
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