#15,655
Now that the alarm has gone out, and countries know what to test for, more and more nations are reporting the presence of the UK COVID variant which was announced last week. Yesterday Germany was added to the list, and in the past few hours Japan's Ministry of Health has announced 5 cases with recent travel from the UK.
Other countries reporting this variant include Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Hong Kong and Italy, and it is likely more will follow.
There is still some debate over how much of an impact this new variant - and others reported from South Africa and Nigeria - would actually have on the course of the pandemic, but many countries are imposing travel bans to and from the UK and South Africa in an attempt to reduce their spread.
As more reports come in of cases outside these two countries, however, the effectiveness of any travel restrictions will slowly diminish.
(translated)
About the outbreak of patients with new coronavirus infection (mutant strain)Passengers arriving at the airport from the UK were examined by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases for patients with the new coronavirus confirmed by quarantine. As a result, the mutant new coronavirus infection reported in the UK today (12/25). Disease (mutant strain) was detected. This is the first time that a mutant strain of the new coronavirus infection similar to that in the United Kingdom has been confirmed in airport quarantine.The mutated new coronavirus reported in the UK may be up to 70% more susceptible to infection at WHO on December 21, 2nd year, according to a UK survey, and the severity of this mutant strain. , There is no evidence to suggest that it has any effect on the antibody reaction or the effectiveness of the vaccine [1]. Also, please refer to the opinion [2] compiled by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will continue to cooperate with the governments of each country, WHO, experts, etc., and strive to take flexible measures to prevent the spread of infection while paying close attention to the infection situation in other countries.
In addition, please be careful about the protection of personal information so that the person or family member is not identified by the media.
[1] SARS-CoV-2 Variant? United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
https://www.who.int/csr/don/21-december-2020-sars-cov2-variant-united-kingdom/en/
[2] Detection of a new mutant strain (VUI-202012 / 01) in the UK (1st report)
https://www.niid.go.jp/niid/ja/diseases/ka/corona-virus/2019-ncov /10074-covid19-27.html
