Japan to restrict travel from S Africa, 5 other countries over variant

It' been dectected in Hong Kong to. It's not good news for our travelers. I bet many were planning to visit there for some vacation time. Now they probably gonna try to rush back and be stuck in quarantine.

I have been putting off seeing my family and friends back in the states for 2 years now... and now finally I have tickets paid for and hotels booked, plans made for the end of December. I have 2 pcr tests scheduled and already paid for. If it gets cancelled again I cannot even imagine what it will do to my mental health. My grandfather has been battling cancer for years and this is probably my last chance to see him.

I couldn't be there to help when my Father fought and passed away from terminal cancer because of my husband's stupid job wouldn't allow him time off (even though he hadn't taken sick/holiday days in 3 years) and no family could watch my young daughter. I couldn't go to my Brother's wedding because of Covid. His wife is pregnant and I doubt I'll be able to meet my new niece. My mother moved out of the house I grew up in and I didn't get to say goodbye to all of my childhood memories.

What more do I have to sacrifice to this virus? I will get a booster every 6 months for the rest of my life. I will never step a foot outside of the house again without a mask. I will do absolutely anything asked of me if I can just please see my loved ones and my home country just once more.

Every month this virus goes on I feel more and more hopeless about the future. I don't leave the house unless I have to, I don't talk to people, I don't meet people unless absolutely necessary. It feels like it will never end. Is this life now? Is this forever? It honesty makes me not want to go on any longer. I don't know if other people feel this way but I don't feel like I've lived anything even resembling life since 2019. More variants. More closures. More restrictions. If this is what life will be from now on, what's the point at all?

Only Africa? From what I've read, it's been detected in Israel, Belgium and HKG as well...

“savethegaijinToday  07:42 am JST

Every month this virus goes on I feel more and more hopeless about the future. I don't leave the house unless I have to, I don't talk to people, I don't meet people unless absolutely necessary. It feels like it will never end. Is this life now? Is this forever? It honesty makes me not want to go on any longer. I don't know if other people feel this way but I don't feel like I've lived anything even resembling life since 2019. More variants. More closures. More restrictions. If this is what life will be from now on, what's the point at all?”

Where there is life there is hope, never give up!

Go on your holiday! :)

Meaningless and too late, if it's in Europe and north Africa then it's only a matter of time, history showed us.

Please don't over react. It's just gonna be 15 day to slow the spread. It's for the greater good. Also, it's a pandemic of the unvaccinated. These truths we hold to be self-evident. Follow the science. Amen.

If this is what life will be from now on, what's the point at all?

Great post. Fully agreed, at this rate we are never getting out of this mess if we keep knee jerking at every varient.

CLOSE the borders.

You can do things virtually these days.

Get a VR set and go anywhere in the world.

META is here.

Good, next to close borders from Europe and HK too.

This will just act as an excuse for Japan to prolong the reopening of their borders more broadly.

HK hardly has any local transmissions. Practically all cases are detected in arriving passengers who are tested positive at the airport or at designated quarantine hotels.

Japan will tighten restrictions on travelers from South Africa and five nearby countries after the discovery of a new coronavirus variant there, the gov

I thought travel restrictions already apply to all countries? And the J government is of course late to this; by this time the Xi variant clearly already has spread to many countries and will also get here.

Pukey2

HK hardly has any local transmissions. Practically all cases are detected in arriving passengers who are tested positive at the airport or at designated quarantine hotels.

According to the CCP state media, which now also control HK? Or do you have another source for the claim?

@savethegaijin - “I don't leave the house unless I have to, I don't talk to people, I don't meet people unless absolutely necessary. It feels like it will never end. Is this life now?”

I didn’t vote for your comments. Understood what/how you and others might have felt through all this. But that’s not the life we should live. The inconvenience of mask, hand sanitizers, and vaccines, if you are comfortable to take them, lower the risk. Go out, get some fresh air, plenty out there. Talk to somebody from time to time. I have barely changed any of my routines so far, only been more cautious and considerate to the safety of others and myself following social distancing etiquettes as advised. Life is a gift of God, don’t waste it.

The thing is, no-one knows if this variant is more or less pathogenic. I’m betting on less so that this may be a blessing in disguise! A less pathogenic more virulent variant which superseded all previous variants will make the world and the human population safer!

I know the pharma shills won’t be happy but the general populace will live happily ever after!

@savethegaijin

Just keep on living. Meet close friends and stay in contact with people. Doesn't mean you'll be out partying all night at a Roppongi club. But by all means go out to the mall, take a trip around japan to see the autumn colors, get out of your prefecture, take a walk and do all these while still taking care of yourself and your family. Eat well, rest enough, wear your masks and get your vaccine shots if you feel you need to. And simply live life.

It's tough as it is, specially when you have family members on the other side of the world going through some serious health issues. But yeah. Go out and enjoy the blue skies.

I'm in the same boat you are, more or less, and have had some really down times this year. Sometimes I felt I just wanted to roll into a ball position and just lie down under a bridge. Cried a lot and sometimes for really stupid and insignificant things. I guess that's what depression must be like. Anyway, I decided it's better to keep on living.

Hope you get to find your way back to a Genki mental status.

Sanjinosebleed

The thing is, no-one knows if this variant is more or less pathogenic. I’m betting on less so that this may be a blessing in disguise!

That is quite possible, and would be in line with the way that viruses always evolve. Not enough information yet, but lets hope!

willib:

According to the CCP state media, which now also control HK? Or do you have another source for the claim?

No, according to HK government. But you're welcome to believe what you like. The HKers are the sort of people who will panic a lot if the pandemic gets out of hand. Just because the pandemic is raging in your own country doesn't mean it's the same in other places, especially East Asia.

@Pukey2

HK government gets direct mandate from CCP.

Beijing Olympics don't even have to test and quarantine when they visit HK.

I bet you a million dollars though that while they'll ban all people coming from there, they'll make an exception for Japanese nationals (but not family who are not Japanese!), and also Japanese from other nations who have been to the affected area, and it will be "up to them" to quarantine. Then it'll be here and start spreading through the enkais and other Oshougatsu events and gatherings, will be hard to get a test for, and will be underreported and played down... rinse, repeat. They are absolutely still going to rush to get in as much GoTo travel business as possible, not having learned from the last time.

This is not South Africa's fault. It's the whole world's fault for dragging their feet in getting the whole world vaccinated. Doctors have said again and again, if we keep treating only parts of the world, it will spread in the untreated parts and then back to the treated, and vice-versa. Anyone who thought otherwise... well... welcome Omicron variant.

the whole world's fault for dragging their feet in getting the whole world vaccinated

Do you honestly think the whole world can simply vaccinate itself and that if done, covid and the madness around it will just end? It will spread and mutate regardless of the percentage vaccinated. That much is more likely than not. Maybe the Japanese government knows that there are much bigger problems from trying to react to every "variant" and would rather try to bolster economic and social stability.

Pukey2

According to the CCP state media, which now also control HK? Or do you have another source for the claim?

No, according to HK government.

Where is the difference? The days were the HK government could speak differently from the CCP are gone. Did you miss that?

smithinjapan

This is not South Africa's fault. It's the whole world's fault for dragging their feet in getting the whole world vaccinated.

Actually, according to critical virologists like Montagneir and Vandenbosch, it is precisely this ill-advised unselective mass vaccination during the pandemic that is causing these ever more more advanced variants. Increasingly, they are proven right.

@smithinjapan

Why of course, if Japan doesn't care for japanese, who would?

Every month this virus goes on I feel more and more hopeless about the future. I don't leave the house unless I have to, I don't talk to people, I don't meet people unless absolutely necessary

I suggest you consult a psychologist. There are clearly deeper issues than the virus at play.

Everyone have a cup of tea and calm down.

'Covid: New Omicron variant not a disaster, says Sage scientist' [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59442141]

'Asked whether people should be fearful of the new variant, Prof. Semple - who sits on the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies - told BBC Breakfast: "This is not a disaster, and the headlines from some of my colleagues saying 'this is horrendous' I think are hugely overstating the situation.

"Immunity from the vaccination is still likely to protect you from severe disease. You might get a snuffle or a headache or a filthy cold but your chance of coming into hospital or intensive care or sadly dying are greatly diminished by the vaccine and still will be going into the future."'

So just wait and see. We have been here before with other variants. Discovery mass panic testing relief.

Governments want to be seen to be doing something, hence the flight blocks.

This is a wake up call: The developing world needs to be vaccinated asap.

This is a virus which is basically non-fatal in people under 70 years of age-mental anguish and economic anguish are the killers,

not the virus