Japan has detected its first case of COVID with the Ómicron XE variant in an asymptomatic woman who landed on March 26 at Tokyo Narita airport from the United States, the Ministry of Health reported.
The woman, in her thirties and who had received the two-dose schedule of the covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer, had no symptoms and had embarked with the regulatory negative test to enter the Asian country, but her test at the airport showed a positive result.
The patient was isolated in a accommodation designated by government authorities until she completed her quarantine, according to information provided by the authorities.
Genetic sequencing analyses by the National Institute of Diseases determined that the female samples corresponded to the omicron XE variant, a combination of the original strain BA.1 and the BA.2 subvariant that occurs when someone contracts both at the same time, and that it is more contagious, although its severity is under study.
“It is necessary to collect more information to determine its characteristics of spread and the severity of the disease. We will closely monitor the movement of this mutation and test while we look at the scientific information that comes out and we observe the situation in other countries,” said the Japanese government spokesman, Hirokazu Matsuno, today when asked at a press conference.
Matsuno said that, while they will remain vigilant, the case has been detected at the airport, “but it has not yet been detected within Japan” at the community level.
The Japanese archipelago “is currently in a period of transition to normality” following the lifting of anti-covid measures in mid-March, said Matsuno, who assured that the authorities are following the evolution of the epidemic situation in the country, where the reduction of covid cases has stagnated.
Japan recorded more than 337,000 new cases of covid last week, a slight increase over the previous one.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has recorded more than 7 million infections and 28,697 deaths linked to the pathogen.
The omicron XE combined variant was first identified in the United Kingdom last January. As of 5 April, about 1,100 cases of this variant had been detected in that country, less than 1% of the infections in the territory.
(With information from EFE)
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