Covid, Japan closes its borders until January 31 for the “English variant” – Corriere.it

the Japan decided to close the borders to foreigners starting from December 28 to January 31, 2021.

The choice is based on the identification of the new so-called English variant of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus in some passengers arriving from Great Britain. This was reported by the Nikkei news agency. Japanese citizens and foreigners living in Japan may return to the country.

On December 26, Japan confirmed that it had identified two new people with the British variant of the virus, one of whom became infected in the first infection within the country.

The Japanese capital Tokyo yesterday registered 949 new cases of contagion, a record for the metropolis; the cases, in all Japan, were 3,823. Requests for the early closure of bars, made by the Tokyo prefectural governorate, have fallen on deaf ears, according to the AP news agency. Next year Japan is expected to host the Olympics, originally scheduled for summer 2020 and postponed for Covid.

The so-called English variant, according to the currently available studies and the experts also interviewed by Corriere, has a diffusion capacity that could be greater (up to 70%); There is no evidence that it is more dangerous or lethal, nor that it can withstand approved or in-process Covid vaccines.

It is unclear whether the variant originated in Great Britain: it has been identified and become dominant in the south-east of the country. Among the hypotheses about its origin, the European Infectious Diseases Surveillance Center mentioned the possibility that it had developed in an immunosuppressed patient who, infected, had the infection for a long time before recovering, favoring the accumulation of many small ones. mutations.

Due to its spread, the British government launched particularly severe lockdown measures last weekend. The European Union, in turn, has taken steps to limit travel between Britain and EU countries to a minimum.

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