TOKYO (Reuters) – About 70 percent of coronavirus patients tested at a Tokyo hospital last month carried a mutation known to reduce vaccine protection, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday.
The E484K mutation, nicknamed “Eek” by some scientists, was found in 10 of 14 people who tested positive for the virus at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital in March, the report said.
In the two months to March, 12 out of 36 patients with COVID underwent the mutation without any of them having recently traveled abroad or reported contact with the people they had, he said.
Hospital officials were not immediately available for comment.
Before the Summer Olympics scheduled to begin in July, Japan is facing a new wave of infections. Health experts are particularly concerned about the spread of mutant strains, even though large-scale vaccinations of the general population have not yet begun.
On Friday, 446 new infections were reported in Tokyo, although it is still well below the peak of more than 2,500 in January.
In Osaka, 666 cases were reported. Health experts have expressed concern about the spread of a mutant strain that is known to have appeared in the UK around that western metropolis.
NHK said none of the patients at Tokyo Hospital wore the British strain.
Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Mountainous of William Mallard