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In Japan, five cases of the new variant of the coronavirus have been found to spread rapidly through the UK, and Russia has become the latest country to impose a stricter quarantine on travelers from Britain.
Japan has avoided the huge numbers of infections seen in countries from the US to Europe, but cases are rising dramatically, with daily numbers surpassing 3,000 for the first time this month.
The five people infected with the most transmissible form of Covid-19 had recently arrived from the UK. They have been quarantined, Japanese media reported, and health officials are trying to trace their contacts and possible routes of infection.
Japan has already banned UK travelers, as well as returning Japanese citizens and residents.
The new variant has brought stricter travel controls around the world. Some countries, including Saudi Arabia, have temporarily closed their borders entirely. Dozens of other people from El Salvador to Finland have also blocked travelers from the UK or British nationals.
Cases
Where travel is still possible, it is increasingly likely to come with stricter controls. Russia imposed a mandatory two-week quarantine on people arriving from Britain, the Interfax news agency reported, after previously suspending flights to and from the country.
Japan hopes to start a vaccination program in the new year. The country of 126 million people has reached agreements to buy 290 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna, enough for 145 million people.
But none of them have been approved by their regulators yet, so for now, Japanese authorities are still struggling to control the broadcast.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged people to stay home during the New Year, an extended national holiday, when people traditionally travel to see friends and family across the country.
The new variant, which has been responsible for plunging parts of the UK into near-closed levels of restrictions over Christmas, has already been spotted from Australia, despite extremely strict border controls, to Denmark.
A second highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus, which is spreading in South Africa, has also reached the UK. Scientists believe that it may affect younger people more and be slightly more resistant to vaccines.
However, research is still continuing to confirm the threat posed by the variant, which does not appear to cause more severe symptoms or require different treatment.
There are also some fears that the larger individual mutations of the South African variant could re-infect people who have already contracted the virus and have recovered.
