Japan has detected another new version of COVID-19, one that appears to have arrived with passengers from Brazil, its health ministry said on Sunday.
The mutation was detected in four people who arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on January 2 after traveling from the Brazilian state of Amazonas, including a man with difficulty breathing and another with a fever, officials said.
The latest option appears to be different from the highly infectious strains that are blamed for an explosion in cases in the UK and South Africa, the ministry said.
“At the moment, there is no evidence that the new variant found in Brazil has a high level of infectivity,” Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, said in a briefing by the health ministry.
Studies are already underway on the effectiveness of vaccines against the new variant, the ministry said.
Japan has already declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three prefectures adjacent to the capital after an explosion of cases.
The nation has so far had nearly 289,000 confirmed cases, with 3,850 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.