Japan has detected a new variant of COVID-19, which appears to have arrived with travelers from Brazil, its health ministry said on Sunday.
The mutation was detected in four people who arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport on January 2 after traveling from the Brazilian state of Amazonas, including a man with respiratory difficulties and another with fever, according to van inform officials.
The new version appears to be different from the highly infected strains that were blamed for an explosion in cases in Britain and South Africa, the ministry said.
“At the moment, there is no evidence that the new variant found in Brazilians has a high level of infection,” Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, told a news conference at the ministry. of health.
The ministry said the effectiveness of vaccines against the new variant is already being studied.
Japan has already declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures in the capital after an explosion of cases.
The nation has so far had nearly 289,000 confirmed cases, with 3,850 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.