The Japanese Ministry of Health has identified a hotbed of infection with the British strain of coronavirus. Reported by the Nikkei newspaper.
The virus was detected in five more citizens living in Tokyo and neighboring Saitama prefecture. The infected are under medical supervision.
The three infected from Saitama are colleagues and have been in contact at work with a man previously infected with the British strain. The agency did not rule out the possibility of forming the country’s first focus of infection with a new strain of coronavirus.
In early January, WHO Director General Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus assessed the danger of a new coronavirus mutation that was discovered in Japan. According to him, this strain of coronavirus did not make the infection more aggressive.
Earlier, the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases said that they had discovered a new, different from those spreading in the UK and South Africa, a mutation of the coronavirus. According to experts, the strain was identified in four people who flew to Japan from Brazil on January 2. In Japan, its probably higher contagiousness raised concerns.
A new coronavirus mutation was first discovered in the UK in September 2020, but it began to spread actively in December. The changes affected the area of the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus, which is responsible for attaching to cells located in the mucous membrane of the lungs and a number of other organs.