A man who worked at the Tokyo bureau of the Reuters news agency did not self-isolate after arriving from Britain and is thought to have transmitted the U.K. coronavirus variant to two people at a party.
The man, who is in his 30s, resigned after the issue was discovered, according to Reuters.
He entered Japan on Dec. 22 and tested negative at airport quarantine. He was asked to self-isolate at his home in Tokyo for 14 days, but a few days later he attended a party with about 10 people, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and other sources.
He developed coronavirus symptoms on Dec. 27, and the infection was confirmed on Dec. 29.
A man and woman in their 20s who attended the party were later found to be infected with the virus variant prevalent in Britain. It is thought that they were infected by the Reuters employee, but it has not been identified if the man was infected with the virus variant.
A Reuters spokesperson told The Yomiuri Shimbun: "We began investigating immediately after learning about the problem. The man is no longer working for our company."
On Dec. 19, the British government revealed results of analysis indicating the U.K. variant is more infectious than the original form of the virus. Many countries strengthened measures after the announcement, including France, which suspended entry from Britain on Dec. 21.
The Japanese government suspended entry for most foreign nationals from Britain on Dec. 24 and increased the number of required tests after entry to two on Dec. 26.
The man entered Japan before the government had implemented strict quarantine measures, prompting experts to point out delays in the government's response and difficulties requesting self-isolations.
"If the measures had been taken a little earlier, we might have been able to prevent the infection at the party," a senior health ministry official said.
"In Britain, the mutated virus was confirmed in September. Even though there was enough time to gather information, the government failed to adequately address the problem," said Yoshihito Niki, a visiting professor at Showa University who is an expert on infectious diseases. "The government should have stopped new arrivals [from Britain] when the British government made the announcement."
Some observers have said the government needs to improve the effectiveness of the self-isolation requests for international arrivals.
The United States requires a seven-day quarantine period in principle for people who test negative on arrival, and 10 days for those who do not take a PCR test, while France requires seven-day isolation and testing at the end of the isolation period.
"One of the options is to shorten the self-quarantine period by effectively conducting PCR tests before the period ends," said Toho University Prof. Kazuhiro Tateda who also serves as director of the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. "We should discuss new rules that are easier for those self-isolating to follow."
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