Japan confirms 1st case of Omicron variant

Wait, I thought you needed a negative PCR test to fly to Japan?

I hope the guy really is quarantining, as well as everyone who was on the same plane...

Its here! Surprise of the day.... not.

Vreth

Close every restaurant by 8pm immediately!

Well, we do not know yet if Omicron sleeps until 8 and then suddenly springs into action like its predecessors, but lets see what Koike comes up with.

A man !

Why its nationality isn't displayed ? When the Ugandan team was tested positive, it was at the headline.

of course the virus would sooner or later arrive to Japan. What I question, is what about the other passengers that arrived on the same plane? Are they being isolated, and tested after a 3- day period?

He tested positive on arrival, which without much doubt means that other passengers were at risk throughout the flight.

Its the story that writes itself.

What about all the other people on that guy's flight?

Japan and many other countries closed its borders, which is a very good thing!

So far what I read and hear in other news, nobody who got infected with this new strain got sick or hospitalized.

Just tested positive.

Therefore I do not yet see a big problem in Japan and also all over the world.

But, if in the next weeks, it comes out that people got seriously sick, hospitalized and that the current vaccine don't protect us from this new strain, then we have a problem.

So closing the borders immediately was the best and only prevention the government could do so far.

R. T.Today 05:30 pm JST

The only good thing about this is there will be no drinking with my coworkers ever again for the rest of my life.

Outstanding! Best laugh I had today!

According to the Japanese news. the infected person is Namibian diplomat.

Now... will Japan complain if they are put on a banned nations list?

Don’t forget to thank china for this

Everybody here is complaining about the government's measures to date, but there can be no denying the fact that Japan probably has less cases than any other country at the moment—and that is without drastic lockdowns, etc.

I hope the guy really is quarantining, as well as everyone who was on the same plane...

Probably went to some dinner party, across prefectures when he was supposed to be quarantining, like the first case of Delta.

Anyways, genie's out of the bottle now. All you need is one, so... get ready for another roller coaster in 2022.

All other passengers on board have tested negative. They are in self isolation.

航空機同乗者70人は全員陰性

https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/145723

The question is when, not whether, the variant will enter into the country. Or it must have already arrived. The tightened entry is meant to save extra times for better preparations.

High time for Nippon to make a better COVID-19-20-21-22-23 vaccines!

Which covid vaccines were discovered in 2020 and 2021, and how are you able to predict viruses that will be discovered in 2022 and 2023?

Or did you not know what the "19" in covid-19 refers to?

First case confirmed, definitely not first case in Japan considered the time it takes to arrange tests after discovering the new variant, the fact that aside from the airports nobody with mild or no symptoms is tested in Japan, the fact that the variant is in many countries already and the fact that oh the hell.

No, It simply means that writer has not yet heard a report of someone dying from this variant. Neither have I.

As I said earlier:

Without giving us some context as to how far you actually know, this comment is meaningless. Have you got access to the data? Have you researched it? Do you have the qualifications to accurately evaluate whether someone has died from the variant, or some other means?

Just as I have said in the past this virus is not going to go away. You can't kill a virus it just keeps mutating to something else. The next mutation phase will be Pi.

Quick, let's put a ban on alcohol drinks inside restaraunts again, got to nip this in the bud quickly.

Why do you hope he's quarantining @RawBeer? You have nothing to be scared of. You take care of your health and your immune system and have a stock of a drug for early onset symptoms. I'm somewhat confused by why you care.

Scared? I'm not at all scared of this mild virus. But I am concerned about the response it might generate... though I admit I miss the empty trains...

Here we go again, I don’t think I can afford another lockdown last one cost me six months work one government pay out!!

Nongaco

Omicron has very minor effects for 2 or 3 days

If that is true, it is a blessing in disguise. The absolute best thing that could happen is variant that is a) extremely infections and b) harmless. That would work like a natural mass vaccination, creating instant herd immunity. The only parties unhappy about that would be the pharma giants and power-hungry politicians.

According to the latest information, the infected person is a Namibian diplomat.

Infected.

@Raw Beer: That will be the same 'mild virus' that 5.2 Million people have already died from? Just to make sure we are talking about the same topic here?

As far as I know, nobody has yet died from the omicron variant.

Without giving us some context as to how far you actually know, this comment is meaningless. Have you got access to the data? Have you researched it? Do you have the qualifications to accurately evaluate whether someone has died from the variant, or some other means?

The Made in Japan vaccines will be more effective than the Sinovac for sure.

That is a terribly low standard to surpass, so easily done, what is not justified is that not even one is at the market at this time, it is entirely possible that by the time a Japanese vaccine is available for the public there will be no people left to immunize, or the standard to surpass becomes completely different because of the variants.

I was just answering the question: "That will be the same 'mild virus' that 5.2 Million people have already died from?"

And that is still not an answer because it has not been validated nor analyzed scientifically, what if seeing "mild" symptoms in the patients is still worse than what is seen with delta? how about the number of cases? if there is an increase not explainable by other reasons that still would mean a worse situation even if the anecdotal evidence is correct.

That was fast.

It's a strange thing, but most people throughout the world waste their time and energy criticising their governments and lawmakers in their handling of this crisis, when the actual perpetrators of this pernicious pandemic should be the focus of everyone's anger, the deceitful Chinese leadership, who have still not been able to have the decency to acknowledge their mistakes and offer their humble apologies.

How apt it would have been for the WHO to allow for the real naming of this catastrophic plague, namely Chinavirus Variant Xi, but this would never happen as they are in the pay of the CCP.

William77Today  06:31 pm JST

And again as proved before total lockdowns won’t contain the spread of the variants around the world.

I agree in locking travels from certain danger areas in the world but a total lockdown and ban every foreign is xenophobic and ineffective.

we live in Sakoku 2.0.

Raw BeerToday  07:04 pm JS

Scared? I'm not at all scared of this mild virus. But I am concerned about the response it might generate... though I admit I miss the empty trains...

So the best is no action. Governments don't need to do anything. Just let the virus run it's course and whoever dies, dies......this is usually followed by a banal cliche like 'people die'. Not surprisingly that those who feel this way also feel that vaccinations, masks, and distancing aren't necessary.

According to the CDC, the highest mortality rate from the flu in the last decade in the US was 52,000 in 2017. COVID-19 has killed more than 730,000 in the US. Yet some still think that governments and people are overreacting and refuse to take precautions to protect themselves and more importantly, others.

Hiro S Nobumasa

The Made in Japan vaccines will be more effective than the Sinovac for sure.

What vaccines are you referring to? I understand Moderna is produced here, as will be Novovax. But these are under license, they are not specific to Japan. Is there a unique vaccine developed here?

Frightening, isn't it? That's the name of the game.

Still, makes you wonder how they manage to tell one variant from another, seeing as the original has never been isolated, and it goes without saying none of the variants have either. Good scam, though. How can the layman prove they are lying?

The good news is, with omicron we can still afford 1% to 4% of those radical anti-vaxxers. I’ve just calculated it. No, fun aside…in return that means we need at least a vaccination rate or otherwise reached immunity rate of 96% with newly adapted vaccines and boosters. Otherwise, well, I guess you still insist in denying any extinguishing strategy and still naively think you can live with the viruses, so you’ll see soon what happens otherwise to your health, the economies and societies. I recommend , you better wouldn’t really want that experience and should change your stubbornness quite quickly.

Show proof please...... anyone can claim a statement .

WHere is the PROOF??

I need to tell my new Twitter friend in Germany - he had no idea he'd already arrived in Japan...

Omicron aka B.1.1.529 (@realB11529) / Twitter

Yea, he was vaccinated as well...scary

There's no guarantee he had antibodies though. But yeah, we need a new vaccine for this strain.

Worship the Lord Cron.

”Oh my Cron!”

The governments do not reveal information about infected people.

If you want to know the details of the infected people, wait for the information from the weekly magazines.

It turned out that it was "a British reporter from Reuters" who spread the mutant strain of Corona to Japan, because a weekly magazine reported it.

The virus will stabilise on the most dominant variant globally. Closing borders won't help, unless you close them entirely and permanently, freezing your nation at a stage of the virus. That would mean no politicians, sports stars, rich people, celebrities, imports or exports crossing your borders. Including no food or energy imports. Closing borders just delays the inevitable with considerable consequential cost.

A variant that spreads faster but kills fewer would be welcome. Until this runs through us it won't go, and it needs to do that before the vaccines wear off.

And for the hundredth time, the vaccines do not make you immune to Covid. Just like flu vaccines, they limit the effects of it by training your immune response. They may be 10% or 20% less for Omicron, but at this point in the spread, that would not be a big deal. Most state reactions have been overreactions - politicians responding to public sentiment.

Quarantine hotels are a bad idea, incidentally. The sum viral load may increase, variants may mix and staff will get infected, spreading the virus when they go home. Plus it is tough on those imprisoned in them, especially women and kids. Instead supply secure transport to all arrivals to get them to their homes where they can quarantine with their families. It may also be wise for air crew to sleep and eat in their planes before flying home.

Everyone calm down. Wear a mask, get a jab, be sensible around others and get on with life.

Keri, did you bring your HamRadio? That should be a perfect spot

The Made in Japan vaccines will be more effective than the Sinovac for sure.

Yes, the virus is in principle dead but still more clever than we. It departs not exactly from Southern Africa, but only a bit more northern. That kiddy trick is already more than sufficient to set into panic the whole oh so most intelligent humankind everywhere.

Omicron has very minor effects for 2 or 3 days

And again as proved before total lockdowns won’t contain the spread of the variants around the world.

I agree in locking travels from certain danger areas in the world but a total lockdown and ban every foreign is xenophobic and ineffective.

we live in Sakoku 2.0.

And here we go. Strap yourselves in and brace for impact.

Unbelievable. Did they at least manage to trace all the passenger of that plane? Considered this variant was highly contagious, it's rare that only 1 passenger is infected with it in a plane.

I wonder if I could get another hundred thousand yen-slim but a possibility…

Japan needs to reduce the gap between the second and booster jabs. Eight months is far too long, even before Omicron turned up.

There is no information on the infected person except that he is a man in his thirties.

The man who spread the mutated strain to Japan in 2020 was a British man working for Reuters, but his nationality was not announced.

Later, a weekly magazine reported the details, and it was reported that the reporter had ignored requests to stand by, and that he had been fired from Reuters.

https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/43357

https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/43429

Well done, always informative @P.Smith 6:53pm. Q: Will we be able to set our watches to it? Plus, this new variant name can’t possible be good news to Seiko’s brand either? - https://omicronwatch.jp/ -

- @P. Smith 6:53pm: “Gentlemen, it’s bad news. The virus has mutated to become active at 1940 local time. It’s literally the first virus in recorded viral history to adhere to time zones. Scientists have yet to figure this out.” -

@Raw Beer: That will be the same 'mild virus' that 5.2 Million people have already died from? Just to make sure we are talking about the same topic here?

As far as I know, nobody has yet died from the omicron variant. Those who have treated omicron-infected patients have reported the symptoms to be milder than with previous variants. We've been talking about this for a few days already, where have you been?

BTW, about those millions who died, many died with the virus, not from the virus, and most of the remaining died because they were not given certain early treatments.

I read elsewhere that south Africa had reported the variant last month and not as the article says less than a week ago.

The new variant was named and confirmed less than a week ago .

The article is strangely written and a bit ambiguous in my opinion.

New arrivals from international flights are all coming in from foreign countries.

Japanese or not they are all new arrivals.

Perhaps its a translation issue or the article is poorly written

Then of course everyone else on the flight might be infected since this is a respiratory virus…but seems to less virulent than Delta or Covid19!

South Africa. Only 25% are fully vaccinated. At the current rate of vaccination in South Africa, it is estimated 70% of the population will be immunized by June 2023. That is 19 months from today. 2023.

Variants spread among the unvaccinated and crossover.

@Richie

You are so full of it, I can almost smell your stench from here. Makes Joey Biden smell like your favorite hostess at the start of her shift.

We don't know what % of unvaxxed or vaxxed people are spreading this "variant" in Africa but we know in Europe and Asia, so far it's 100% vaxxed with the Big Pharma concoctions who are spreading it.

South Africa. Only 25% are fully vaccinated. At the current rate of vaccination in South Africa, it is estimated 70% of the population will be immunized by June 2023. That is 19 months from today. 2023.

Variants spread among the unvaccinated and crossover.

Japan is almost 80% fully immunized, the contrast with South Africa is almost the inverse.

Informed opinion, among scientists and physicians who are acquainted with SARSCoV-2 and the variant Omicron: it is highly contagious, but less virulent. That is conjecture, but based on not just speculation - but actual observation of the path of the variant among those infected.

Locking down the borders to foreign travelers is wise. Unfortunately, in 2020, the central government did not close the borders until months after the virus had spread throughout the population. The first recorded case among Japanese was a man infested by a busload of tourist from Wuhan, in January 2020.

SARSCoV-2, is a pandemic, not an epidemic. The spread is among the unvaccinated, typically among nations with a dysfunctional or non-existent healthcare system, inadequate supplies of vaccine and refuseniks aka anti-vaxxers. Reason enough to ban the entry of foreigners.

As far as I know, nobody has yet died from the omicron variant.

That is the think too little is known, which for the professionals is a sign of caution, but for people with no idea of risk management means that anything you don't see doesn't exist.

I have no idea what you are trying to say.

I was just answering the question: "That will be the same 'mild virus' that 5.2 Million people have already died from?"

I thought my simple answer was clear enough. Apparently not....

Or are you suggesting that perhaps 5.2 million people died from the omicron variant?

High time for Nippon to make a better COVID-19-20-21-22-23 vaccines!

Dangerous!

Be careful, close borders immediately!

Why do you hope he's quarantining @RawBeer? You have nothing to be scared of. You take care of your health and your immune system and have a stock of a drug for early onset symptoms. I'm somewhat confused by why you care.

Let’s stop recording cases and stop this …