A female tour guide in her 40s from Osaka has been infected with the new coronavirus, sources said, following the case of a male bus driver in his 60s from Nara Prefecture, who was the first Japanese to have been infected with the virus without having been to Wuhan, China.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Osaka prefectural government, the woman was on the bus with the driver to act as an interpreter for tourists from Wuhan from Jan. 12 to 17. During the tour, she sat right behind the driver when on the bus and sometimes ate meals at the same table as him at the hotel.
According to the prefectural government, the woman developed a fever on Jan. 20 and visited a medical institution in Tokyo. It was decided to just monitor her symptoms over time. She also visited medical institutions in Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture on Jan. 21 and 22, but the cause of illness remained unknown. She returned to her home in Osaka on Jan. 22, traveling via Shinkansen and subway and wearing a mask, according to the woman. She visited another medical institution in the prefecture on Jan. 23. On the night of Jan. 29, it was confirmed she had been infected with the virus. She and the driver work for different companies. She is now recovering.
According to the ministry, the woman had not traveled to China in the past month and seems to have been infected by the driver during the tour. "It's possible the driver infected her through tertiary infection," a senior ministry official said.
Bus companies in Japan are stepping up measures against infectious diseases, such as encouraging drivers to wear masks.
Hato Bus Co. has been using alcohol disinfectant sprays in their buses since Tuesday, when the bus driver in Nara Prefecture was found to have been infected with the virus. Drivers are encouraged to clean their hands with the spray as needed.
Kansai Airport Transportation Enterprise Co., which operates a limousine bus service at Kansai Airport, has increased the frequency of disinfecting its buses from once a month to once a week. The company owns about 100 buses and is disinfecting about 15 of them every day. Workers wiped handrails and shelves with cloths sprayed with alcohol on Wednesday.
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