Japan fears COVID-19 variants are behind possible fourth wave
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[April 05, 2021]
By Rocky Swift
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese health
authorities are concerned that variants of the coronavirus are driving a
nascent fourth wave in the pandemic with just 109 days remaining until
the Tokyo Olympics.
The variants appear to be more infectious and may be resistant to
vaccines, which are still not widely available in Japan. The situation
is worst in Osaka, where infections hit fresh records last week,
prompting the regional government to start targeted lockdown measures
for one month from Monday.
A mutant COVID-19 variant first discovered in Britain has taken hold in
the Osaka region, spreading faster and filling up hospital beds with
more serious cases than the original virus, according to Koji Wada, a
government adviser on the pandemic.
"The fourth wave is going to be larger," said Wada, a professor at
Tokyo's International University of Health and Welfare. "We need to
start to discuss how we could utilize these targeted measures for the
Tokyo area."
Japan has twice declared a state of emergency that covered most of the
country in the past year, most recently just after New Year as the
pandemic's third and most deadly wave struck. Officials are now opting
for more targeted measures that allow local governments to shorten
business hours and impose fines for noncompliance.
Osaka city cancelled Olympic Torch relay events there, but Prime
Minister Yoshihide Suga has insisted Japan will carry out the Games as
scheduled. Suga said on Sunday that measures employed in the Osaka area
could be expanded to Tokyo and elsewhere if needed.
There were 249 new infections in Tokyo on Monday, still well below the
peak of over 2,500 in January. In Osaka, the tally was 341, down from a
record 666 cases on Saturday.
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Pedestrians wearing protective face masks amid the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) outbreak, are seen behind cherry blossoms in
Tokyo, Japan, March 18, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
The true extent of the mutant cases is unknown, as only a small
fraction of positive COVID-19 cases undergo the genomic study
necessary to find the variants.
A health ministry report last week showed 678 cases of variants from
Britain, South Africa, and Brazil had been discovered nationwide and
at airports, with the biggest clusters in Osaka and nearby Hyogo
prefecture.
Those three all have the N501Y mutation, and the latter two also
have the E484K mutation. Authorities in Japan have found more than
1,000 cases that only have E484K.
That variant was present in about 70% of coronavirus patients tested
at a Tokyo hospital last month, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said
on Sunday.
The rebound in cases came within weeks of the government lifting
state of emergency measures, and the priority measures being rolled
out now are intended to halt an unexpected rise in mutant cases,
said Makoto Shimoaraiso, a Cabinet Secretariat official for Japan's
COVID-19 response.
"We take the criticism when people say that we have not been able to
detect any variants," he said.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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