New coronavirus strain found in Sendai

Quick close the borders or Sendai!….

It just gets better and better doesn’t it? (Before you hit the thumbs down, that was sarcasm).

Mask up boys!!

lockdown??

Announced right before golden week. I'm sure the miyagi tourism association is busy canceling reservations as I write this.

Quick, be scared. You know you want to.

But it's probably an even milder strain.

How about calling it COVID-seasonal-influenza-1?

The person with the new variant developed symptoms in late March. Because the patient had a mild case and no recent history of foreign travel, the person was allowed to recover without hospitalization. No transmission from the patient has been confirmed.

Ok, dismiss now, go back to work...

Sendai is lucky as it belongs in Japan. Should it be "there," the entire city would be lock-downed on immediate effect, without an exit timetable. The authorities would impose daily & compulsory mass PCR testing and full isolation for positive cases (regardless of symptoms) :p

All the sarcastic comments makes me wonder …. If your house was on fire would you be okay if the fire was only put halfway out ? Do you cook your meals only halfway? If a Dr prescribed antibiotics for a week , do you only take them the 1st few days ? This isn’t some influenza. That’s been near nonexistent because of mitigating Covid. People are actually washing their hands more frequently… and common touch areas. Nor is this mild . But for Covid, 29000 people in Japan would not be dead. The borders wouldn’t be closed. I trust that the jgov will follow the science and start to open the borders when it is safe to do so . But as long as the deadliest variant of Covid in Japan is still raging out of control, it’s not quite time to relax anything. Life has been pretty much normal since the beginning of the pandemic here anyway .

Saito added there was minimal cause to worry about the situation, stating, "It hasn't been found elsewhere, and it seems not to have spread far."

Oh gee, haven't heard that before.

Definitely didn't hear that kind of line three years ago.

All the other countries in the world should immediately ban all arrivals from Japan, or at least reciprocate Japan's measures of making them quarantine for at least 7 days.

Aren’t they quarantining Sendai off?

Imagine if a returnee had brought in a new variant?

But as long as the deadliest variant of Covid in Japan

The case fatality rate in Japan used to be around 2-3% in 2020 and it’s now down to around 0.38% (even probably lower given the large amount of asymptomatic cases and undetected positive cases). So how can this be considered in any shape or form the deadliest variant?

Daito

Well put, the data is out there and simple to read. Omicron is by far the mildest variant. There are tons of Omicron variants, they are of no concern to the scientific community as none are more deadly.

Daito …. Here …. Basic math …. 29000 deaths in 27 months …. 9000 of those deaths …. THIS YEAR…. The masses were NOT vaccinated those 1st 24 months …. THIS YEAR … the majority of RESPONSIBLE people have been vaccinated and many boosted …. If you have any common sense…. The only REASONABLE conclusion any SANE person can draw is that it’s a good thing the vaccines worked as advertised for the majority of smart and responsible people. Because without vaccines …. How much more deadly would Omicron be considering that it is in FACT, THE DEADLIEST VARIANT OF COVID in JAPAN to DATE.

How about calling it COVID-seasonal-influenza-1?

I would love to pity it doesn't seem to choose any particular season though does it?

it doesn't seem to choose any particular season though does it?

A week or so after any major event or national holiday where people travel and/or gather?

The mutation was described as a recombinant virus mixing genetic information of the Omicron variant's BA.1 and BA.2 subtypes. It differs from the Omicron XE derivative strain that presents a risk of a sudden rise in cases.

huh?

Funny how they report this just after someone saying that entry rules should be relaxed.

No problem, just add it to the list of all the other variants, we shall deal with it when it's turn comes up.

Soooo.... the person would have had to be hospitalized if they had traveled overseas? but since they didn't, they don't?

So because the person hadn't done any foreign travel, they didn't need to be hospitalized or whatever. Got it.

It's a Japanese variant, so it must be safer than foreign variants.

What a joke Japan is sometimes. You can't make this ish UP.

Close the borders with Sendai immediately.

Variants happen all the time, but the more the virus spreads and replicates, the more chances of variants

Hopefully, this variant doesn't amount to much

But we shouldn't give the virus too many chances to produce more variants - we don't want the chance of a dangerous variant arising

What an overreaction this article is. Corona viruses of various strains have been around since time immemorial. Stop the knee jerking and start the living.

I can’t follow your naive underestimating. With having found it although the detailed genome sequencing is in fact almost not present compared to other countries, every alarm bell should ring on this new variant and all the other undetected ones out there.

Quick! Lockdown! Stay indoors! Never do anything ever again! I had Covid19 last week and barely survived the 37.9 degree fever, slightly detectable headache, and 2 throat clearances that I made.

 I trust that the jgov will follow the science and start to open the borders when it is safe to do so . 

Corona will be with us for years to come, Can't keep Japan closed forever