The health ministry will strengthen location checks on travelers arriving from India, Nepal and Pakistan to mitigate the spread of the Indian variant of the novel coronavirus in Japan, as some overseas arrivals have been ignoring location confirmation requests during the required 14-day self-isolation period.
The government also plans to start administering PCR tests that can detect the Indian variant.
As of Wednesday, 76% of arrivals who tested positive for coronavirus during airport quarantine checks in May had traveled from the three countries.
The Indian variant has the L452R and E484Q mutations. It is said that the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines could be lower for the variant compared to the original form of the virus. Some observers also claim that the Indian variant is more transmissible than the British variant, which has the N501Y mutation.
Among people who tested positive for coronavirus at Japanese airports, the ratio of cases is high among travelers arriving from Nepal, Pakistan and India, where infections are rampant.
As of Wednesday, of the 638 infections confirmed during airport quarantine checks since March, people arriving from the three countries accounted for 353 cases, or 55%.
In March, arrivals from the countries accounted for 56 cases, or 32%. As of Wednesday, 121 infections had been confirmed among arrivals this month, accounting for 76% of cases.
In the four weeks through May 8, among the about 10,000 arrivals from the United States, 17 tested positive during airport quarantine checks.
Among arrivals from China, the figure was one in about 6,700. However, about 5% of arrivals from India, Nepal and Pakistan tested positive in Japan.
From this month, people arriving from the three countries have been asked to stay at designated facilities for six days upon entry, under the Quarantine Law. They are allowed to leave such facilities if they test negative for the virus on the third and sixth days.
Many travelers arriving from overseas have not been responding to location confirmation requests via smartphone apps while self-isolating.
To resolve the problem, the government will step up checks by security firms. Currently, about 20 checks are conducted every day, but that will be increased to more than 50, particularly focusing on recent arrivals from the three countries.
Some of the participants in a health ministry expert-panel meeting on Wednesday said it might be necessary to devise new infection prevention measures for the Indian variant, depending on its transmissibility.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
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