345 people in Japan infected with coronavirus variants

Funny how this article comes on the heels of yesterday's talking about a variant gaining traction here not found outside of Japan...

domestic testing found 271 people were infected with a variant, while 74 were discovered similarly infected by going through airport quarantine checks.

So these are Japanese nationals bringing those variants back, not foreigners. Just need to establish that.

Every days, there are news about corona to remind you the danger and risks. When it is now about long time effects, or hospitals overloaded, there always a new topic.

It has been a few days already that the variant make the news.

This is just gonna maintain the fear for the most sensitive persons.

Dangerous variants with the Olympics around the corner?

Would be a good time for (finally) some proper testing to find out where these variants are more predominant and be able to have some control over it.

But once again, it won’t happen as it won’t paint a good picture.

Funny how this article comes on the heels of yesterday's talking about a variant gaining traction here not found outside of Japan...

Exactly, am guessing this is the beginning of another propaganda campaign to show that foreigners are to blame instead of the Japanese

Did the variants swim here? We are an island with limited entry points and a sophisticated customs and immigration system.

musical boxes on private jets???

GoodlucktoyouToday 09:48 am JST

Did the variants swim here? We are an island with limited entry points and a sophisticated customs and immigration system.

musical boxes on private jets???

Japanese citizens vs foreign residents / visa holders vs tourists. Right now, tourists can't basically enter. Foreign residents can, but it's bit difficult. But Japanese citizens can enter/leave pretty much same as before. If a Japanese citizen flies to a nearby country today, returns tomorrow, they may meassure his temperature as they want, he may be already infected, but no symptoms yet. And he may start infecting.

But it's easier to blame it on foreigners for bringing it here..

WobotToday  09:41 am JST

Even with the supposed new variants, the number of new cases is going down. As people start going about their business again like before the number won't suddenly shoot up, as you saw last year. It appears to be seasonal and has generally followed the same patterns across countries, lockdowns or not.

The media are just digging around for ways to drag it out at this point

I know. It's hard to push experimental jabs on people who haven't had the bejeezus frightened out of them.

Japanese citizens vs foreign residents / visa holders vs tourists. Right now, tourists can't basically enter. Foreign residents can, but it's bit difficult. But Japanese citizens can enter/leave pretty much same as before. If a Japanese citizen flies to a nearby country today, returns tomorrow, they may meassure his temperature as they want, he may be already infected, but no symptoms yet. And he may start infecting.

But it's easier to blame it on foreigners for bringing it here.

.What are you all on about? There is no mention of foreigners in the article. Just a breakdown of how many people are infected with the new mutations.

Dangerous variants with the Olympics around the corner?

The mutations are more contagious but there is no evidence that they are more dangerous.

Japanese citizens vs foreign residents / visa holders vs tourists. Right now, tourists can't basically enter. Foreign residents can, but it's bit difficult. But Japanese citizens can enter/leave pretty much same as before. If a Japanese citizen flies to a nearby country today, returns tomorrow, they may meassure his temperature as they want, he may be already infected, but no symptoms yet. And he may start infecting.

But it's easier to blame it on foreigners for bringing it here..

exactly. Well said!

Boku Dayo,

the answer is simple, because we are discriminated against much of the time.

I accept it as a fact of life in Japan but i find the sum of the positives stil higher than the negatives. It does not mean we can not say what is not right here. Most of us do it because we love Japan, not to whine

Even with the supposed new variants, the number of new cases is going down. As people start going about their business again like before the number won't suddenly shoot up, as you saw last year. It appears to be seasonal and has generally followed the same patterns across countries, lockdowns or not.

The media are just digging around for ways to drag it out at this point

OK, Donald

@klausdorth The evidence for that is still sparse. Maybe you can post a link to the article you refer to. I might go read it instead of just taking your word as fact!

@mountainpear

What are you all on about?

You should have read the comments from yesterday article on the same topic before they were removed for obvious reasons.

The narrative was : foreigners brought the variants to Japan. Border should be closed to foreigners. That kind of talk also pop out in several articles. They get removed for obvious reasons.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/nearly-400-infected-with-new-coronavirus-variant-found-in-japan

Robert CikkiToday 10:24 am JST

Foreign residents can, but it's bit difficult. But Japanese citizens can enter/leave pretty much same as before. If a Japanese citizen flies to a nearby country today, returns tomorrow, they may meassure his temperature as they want, he may be already infected, but no symptoms yet. And he may start infecting.

But it's easier to blame it on foreigners for bringing it here..

You must inform yourself before posting.

Now, there is no difference between Japanese and foreign residents for entry procedures.

Japanese have also to provide a proof of a negative test done 72hr before departure. Test on arrival too followed by a 2 weeks quarantine

For people coming from 14 countries where the variants are widespread, a mandatory stay for 3 days in a designated hotel waiting for the pcr test result. No difference between Japanese and foreigners. If the test is negative, quarantine for the remaining 11 days.

rober maes,

What is right or wrong is "subjective".

You do it because you love Japan?

I'm not so sure you do...but again, that's subjective.

Japanese citizens vs foreign residents / visa holders vs tourists. Right now, tourists can't basically enter. Foreign residents can, but it's bit difficult. But Japanese citizens can enter/leave pretty much same as before. If a Japanese citizen flies to a nearby country today, returns tomorrow, they may meassure his temperature as they want, he may be already infected, but no symptoms yet. And he may start infecting.

But it's easier to blame it on foreigners for bringing it here..

You seem to have forgotten the hundreds of American Military each month potentially bringing in COVID-19 from the USA to Japan as we speak. Remember Okinawa and the Hilton hotel? Remember Iwakuni and the DOD teacher who lied and took a plane down to the base? Remember the 4th of July beach party and the spread? Currently they are going back to the US and other places and being allowed to re-enter Japan without any quarantine overseen by the Japanese government. They enter under their SOFA agreement.

What is more important in this kind of story is the lack of coherence, making it easy for readers to go off on one particular trail, without the bigger picture. Which is, these all have probably been making their way in for many weeks, (probably during the time when foreign residents couldn't return, while Japanese travellers had relatively few restrictions, and international flight crew fewer still). By the time cases were detected, there was almost certainly community spread of all of the variants. The higher the caseload, the greater the chance of further variants arising, including our very own homegrown one, which of course this article hardly mentions. Are they testing for that, too?

Then again, the high transmissability of the new variants is the most problematic aspect, more than the higher lethality, as this will risk a fresh surge as the SoE is ended. This is also more likely to be the major cause of a higher death rate, rather than the greater lethality of the UK variant:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/uk-officials-say-people-who-get-the-contagious-coronavirus-variant-may-have-a-higher-risk-of-death-here-s-why-that-could-be/ar-BB1d5pDB

A surge in caseload means a greater risk of health systems being overwhelmed.

They are ramping up the ability to test for variants, which is important. But given the way they are restricting access to testing, this will be of limited help in limiting spread, by isolating infected people in time. So no exit strategy, except hang in there for many many months until effective vaccination programmes are widely carried out. And that is assuming that vaccine development can keep on top of mutations in the virus, which aren't going to stop.

I wouldn't imagined this even in my wildest dreams.